


children, hypocrisy, (that's what I give, you can take it from me)

by thatdamnuchiha



Series: In the Company of Elves [14]
Category: Naruto, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: BAMF Haruno Mebuki, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Dimension Travel, Discrimination, Elfling Sakura, Family, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Golden-Haired Haruno Sakura, Haruno 'How Do I Introduce Myself To My Father When He Thinks I'm Dead' Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Haruno Sakura-centric, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Light Angst, Middle Earth, Other, Other POVs to Come, POV Haruno Mebuki, POV Haruno Sakura, POV Third Person, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rivendell | Imladris, Sakura Has Glorfindel's Pretty Locks, Strong Haruno Sakura, Tetsu no Kuni | Land of Iron, Uzumaki Naruto is a Good Friend, Young Elves, writing as i go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 57,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26704795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdamnuchiha/pseuds/thatdamnuchiha
Summary: Haruno Sakura grew up in a world which shunned her very existence, a place she could never quite bring herself to call home, somewhere where she never quite managed to fit in.She knows the reason for this, though – that being her father does not belong to that world, or so her mother eventually told her – and with the war finally behind her, she sets off to find him. With hope in her heart, she travels to her father’s homeland, eager to find her place there. But family relationships are tricky, and Sakura finds herself stumped by the task set before her, because her father believes her and her mother dead.It’s one thing to introduce herself to her estranged father, but another thing entirely for her to shatter the world he’s built in the wake of the assumed loss of his family.
Relationships: Glorfindel (Tolkien) & Haruno Sakura, Glorfindel (Tolkien)/Haruno Mebuki, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Series: In the Company of Elves [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1430875
Comments: 377
Kudos: 811





	1. the golden child

**Author's Note:**

> My mind is drowning in plot bunnies and I can't concentrate until I've written more out, so... here's another crossover of my usual sort, but as you can see from the tags, the Glorfindel-Sakura relationship is rather different this time.
> 
> This work is mainly about the whole finding family and subsequently trying to build a relationship with said estranged members. Random alternate titles for this fic spawned in my head which should explain the gist of things, such as: 'What to do when you find out your elf child has been a mercenary since the tender age of twelve', '"I'm not a child." "Sakura, you do realise elves are considered fully grown when they turn fifty?"', and also 'How to break the news to your father about the fact that not only did his wife not die, but she also gave birth to a healthy girl whose been raised in a world with vastly different views on what constitutes a good childhood.'
> 
> Yeah, so this is going to be fun, and also different from my more plotty works - since the plot of this one is less... action intense.
> 
> The title of this work comes from the song 'Glory' by Hollywood Undead (I've been listening to it far too much, which is why there are a few works with a line or two as a title). Here's to hoping there won't be any comments telling me this title is inappropriate for such a work.

Children were cruel.

It was a fact one Haruno Mebuki knew all too well, if only from her own past experiences. Her daughter had inherited her spring green eyes and her slightly too wide forehead. _Forehead,_ that had been what the other children had called her back in the Land of Iron. The children of Konoha had branded her daughter with a crueller name. _Freak._

“Shh,” she whispered, rubbing at her daughter’s back. “You don’t need to listen to them, Sakura-chan…” Already Mebuki could feel the tears seeping through the simple top she wore, and it was then she _hated_ the village she had decided to settle down in. She should have done more to quell the whispers which had run amok through the village at her precious little daughter’s birth. _The only piece of him she had left, now that she had been sundered from that place and returned to her homeland._ Though it hadn’t been the Land of Iron she had reappeared in, injured, exhausted, and heavily pregnant. Instead she had arrived in the forests surrounding Konoha, and there had barely been enough time for her to make it to the hospital before Sakura, her precious daughter of flowers, had come into the world.

Her daughter had been born with her eyes and her forehead, and her own dainty nose, but everything beyond that had been all her father’s. Mebuki could remember speaking with her loving husband, back in the world where her chakra hadn’t allowed her to age normally. Tears filled her eyes, and she ruffled the golden locks her daughter had inherited. _He had hoped their children would have her hair colour._ Her own long pink hair surrounded her daughter like a curtain, shielding her from the outside world in that moment, because she was her father’s daughter through and through, from her solid little build to the tips of her pointed ears.

Those were what had sparked the rumours. Ones which had undoubtedly reached the ears of the children, and they told them that her daughter wasn’t human. _That she was part spirit. That she had the blood of forest folk, or other strange beasts from the tales there, running through her veins._ Mebuki knew her daughter wasn’t actually entirely human. Both she and her husband had known that their child wouldn’t be just that. What they hadn’t known was whether she would be entirely elven or half, as the other child had been. She didn’t worry over that – separated from that world as it was. Rather, she despised the fact that the children refused to accept her daughter simply because she had pointed ears.

Konohagakure was a place with many diverse bloodlines. No one ostracised Uchiha for having red eyes, well, not the children, at least. No one turned on the Hyuga for having pupils the same colour as the irises of their eyes aside from a few civilians too big for their britches. Yet all the children turned on her daughter for having leaf-shaped ears rather than the rounded ones all others seemed to have.

“We don’t need to go back to Kagutsuchi Park if you don’t wish to…” Mebuki told her, relaxing ever so slightly as the sniffles died away and those spring green eyes peered up at her. “We can play in the garden if you’d like…”

“The garden’s boring,” Sakura mumbled, her words muffled. “But I don’t wanna go back to the park…”

Mebuki tilted her head, musing over taking her daughter to the other park close by. “Do you want to go back to Hashira Park?” she asked, smoothing her daughter’s long golden locks. “There’ll be less children there… but there won’t be as many places to play.”

Sakura shook her head vigorously. “Don’t wanna.”

“Come on,” she said, lifting her daughter into her arms as she stood up, venturing out into the garden. “Are you really going to let those children spoil your day? Your time outside?”

“But they’re really mean!”

“Don’t listen to them, little blossom,” she whispered, planting a kiss on her forehead. “You’re not a freak. You’re just a little different to the rest of them.”

* * *

Haruno Sakura knew she was an _outsider_ there. It was a feeling, deep in her bones, and it only grew that much stronger the more she grew. Though, admittedly, she grew slower than others; yet another something which marked her out as a _freak._ The girls who bullied her towered over her by a good couple of inches, ensuring she felt that much smaller compared to them. With her hair braided back, she felt that much more exposed, her pointed ears on display for everybody to see. She could feel the stares on her. _On her leaf-shaped ears._

Her mother liked to tell her it was only appropriate that she grew up in Konoha rather than anywhere else. It had used to make her laugh, before the mean girls had come along and ruined everything. Part of her cowered before the girls in front of her, something shrivelling up and dying as she mulled over her mother’s words to her. _She had to let their words flow off her, like water off a duck’s back._ A smile curled at her lips then, even as she was surrounded by the taller girls in the depths of Hashira Park. Her mother, she knew, was waiting by the trademark wooden pillars which had given the park its name. If things got too much, she at least had a place to retreat to. She could even call for help, should the altercation get physical, as at least one had before.

“What are you doing here, freak?” the tallest of her newest tormentors spoke, arms folded, chest puffed out in an attempt to intimidate her more than she already was. “Your _kind_ aren’t welcomed here.”

Sakura sucked in a sharp breath, calming her nerves as she opened her mouth. “I-I-I am ju-just minding my own bus-business,” she said, hating the stutter which always appeared whenever she tried to talk back to her bullies.

“I-I-I, ha!” her fellow blonde mocked then, from the ringleader’s side. “You can’t even talk properly, freak!”

Her lip wobbled, tears shining in her eyes. _Was it too much for them to just leave her alone?_ She hadn’t done anything to them. “L-Lea-ve m-m-me al-lone,” she mumbled, stepping back from them then, wrapping her arms around herself as she felt the tell-tale trickle of tears down from her eyes. “What d-did I-I e-ever d-do to y-you?”

The tallest one sneered then, opening her mouth to reply, but another voice beat her to the punch.

“HEY!” The word was screeched out, the sounds of feet pounding against the dirt reaching her sharp ears then, and Sakura stiffened. “You leave her alone, you stupid, big bullies!” She paused in her sniffles then, eyes widening as she caught sight of a blonde boy hurrying over to her then. He had three whisker marks on each cheek, tan skin, bronzed from playing outside in the sunshine. His hair was cut unevenly, rearing up on his head in messy spikes. She didn’t care about how dirty and bedraggled he looked though – because he was defending her. _Her, of all people._ That hadn’t happened before. Ever. She was a _freak,_ and everyone treated her as such.

“Oh.” The tallest of her tormentors stepped back then. “It’s the monster…” she muttered, a sneer besmirching her lips then. “I suppose it’s fitting – freak and monster. You make a nice couple!”

“Mother says I’m not supposed to talk to him,” the blonde one said, tugging on her friend’s sleeves. “We need to go!”

“C’mon them,” the ringleader hissed. “Leave ‘em to their freak fest.”

They left then, and Sakura blinked, dumbfounded. She turned then, emerald green eyes fixing on the form of the boy who had made her bullies run away. “Uh,” she mumbled, shifting on her feet awkwardly. “Hi?”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto!” the exuberant blonde exclaimed, and Sakura could only blink. “I’m gonna be Hokage someday, you’ll see! So if I see meanies pickin’ on a girl, I’ll rescue her and save the day ‘coz Imma be a really awesome shinobi.”

Sakura blinked then. “A shinobi?”

“Shinobi. You know…” Naruto explained, scratching at his chin as he stumbled over the words needed to explain what a _shinobi_ was to her. “They’re the ones who protect Konoha, and only the best of them get to become the Hokage!”

She tilted her head. “Do people… like shinobi?” she asked then, curious as to these so-called protectors. _They sounded like the tales about her father. The ones her mother whispered to her in another language when bedtime came around to call._

“Un!” Naruto nodded then, very vigorously. “Yeah. Of course people do! They’re… shinobi, y’know, and they use super cool jutsu.”

Sakura pressed the tips of her fingers together nervously. “Do… Do you think people would like me if I was a shinobi too?” she asked, heart pounding almost audibly in her chest as she voiced the question so hesitantly. Because she was a child at heart, no matter her strange, unfamiliar looks, she craved acceptance. _Acceptance which wasn’t given, just because her ears were pointed like strange, evil creatures from myths and legends which oftentimes preyed on men, women, and other children._

The other boy blinked then, before nodding with a smile. “Imma be the best Hokage ever, and then everyone will hafta ack-nowlee-edge me!” He nodded once more, and Sakura felt her eyes strain as she followed the vigorous movements. “So they’ll hafta… ack-you know, you too!”

“Really?” she asked, her voice small, looking up at the boy with a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “You really think so?”

Naruto nodded yet again, not a hint of deception on his face or hidden in his body language, and a smile spread across Sakura’s face then at his honesty. “Sure you can!”

Sakura shifted on her feet, heart pounding in her chest even as the boy smiled and waved at her once more – before turning on his heel. Her hands curled into fists, words overcoming her hesitance and general shyness around others. “Wait!” she called, screwing her eyes shut, praying that her voice had reached him.

“Uh, what ‘s it?” Naruto stood before her, a couple of steps away, and Sakura scrounged the scraps of her courage together.

“Will you, uh, b-be my friend?” she asked, eyes still screwed up, and she willed herself not to cry at the eerie silence which fell between the pair of them then. Really, she had thrown herself out on a limb, part of praying that this nice boy who’d helped and rescued her would become her first friend. _Like a chivalrous knight. Just how her father had been described to her._ She could feel the itch in her bones to become more like him, though Sakura was under no delusions she was the furthest thing from her father both in manner and strength. _But she burned with the desire to become stronger and cast away her fears._ This, no matter how strange of a move it was, was a step in the right direction.

* * *

Haruno Mebuki waited alone in the park, worry and concern for her daughter rising as she did not return. Part of her hoped she had found a friend – someone who looked beyond her ears and how strange they seemed in those lands. The other half of her knew how likely such a scenario was. Still, she hoped her daughter was busy enjoying the park. Elves often liked nature more so, especially compared to edain. Though Mebuki wasn’t entirely sure she classed as edain, as one of the Secondborn, given how she was an entity from outside Arda in every sense of the word. _And now her daughter was an outsider in her own world, thanks to her blood._

A sigh escaped her then, and she closed her eyes, only to open them when she heard the sound of footsteps. Her eyes cracked open, a smile forming – only to freeze as she caught sight of her precious little daughter pulling a blonde-haired boy towards her. Her heart leapt, hairs on the back of her neck pricking as she felt gazes set upon them.

“Sakura,” she murmured, meeting those green eyes – carbon copies of her own – which glimmered with happiness. _Something her dear daughter had been lacking for far too long._ “And who might this be?” she asked, noting how the little blonde boy flinched at her stare.

“—monster and freak, how fitting—”

“This is Naruto-kun – he’s my friend, my first _ever_ friend!” Sakura declared, a big grin on her lips. “Can he come over for dinner tonight?”

Haruno Mebuki only smiled, shielding both children as best as she could from the glares of civilians both young and old. “Of course,” she said, expression aglow with delight at the thought that her daughter had made her first friend. _Who, like her, seemed to be terribly ostracised by those around them._

Her daughter had her first friend, something she had been longing for, and it was then that Mebuki vowed to herself that she would see neither of them come to any harm. _Consequences be damned._


	2. the era of change

Summer brought heated winds and flavoured ice to the garden, and Sakura could only smile as she enjoyed them with her bestest friend in the whole entire wide world. Naruto beamed at her, despite his initial disappointment that ramen-flavoured ice didn’t exist. He had been terribly hooked on the noodle dish after she and her mother had introduced him to it – a meal out after they had both successfully enrolled into the academy. Contentment swelled within her, an unbridled happiness soaring through her as she thought of venturing down a path so similar to that which her father had gone down. She wanted to be a protector of the people. She wanted to find her father one day and have him proud of who she had become.

Nodding to herself amidst that summer heat, she enjoyed her flavoured ice, heart setting on her dream for the future. _But she would no doubt have to ply her mother for more information about her father._ Sakura frowned. _She didn’t understand why he couldn’t have come back to Konoha with them…_ She chewed on her lip at the thought, wondering what life would have been like if that mysterious, faceless, blonde man had been in her life since her birth.

She had heard the neighbours talking about him once – calling him a no good, filthy layabout who hadn’t bothered to come and support his wife and daughter. Some of them thought he and her mother hadn’t even gotten married, though her mother had been quite vehement in declaring that they had indeed wedded. Mother had said that her father’s people considered the act of consummation a key part of the marriage, a binding of souls or something. Sakura didn’t know what consummation was, but it sounded important. _Mother had said she’d tell her when she was older._ Sakura had acquiesced. She knew better than to listen to others over her mother. _They were the ones who called her a freak, and they were terribly incorrect – or so her mother and Naruto, her precious friend, said._ Sakura believed them over everybody else. Even if she didn’t quite fit in there. Even if she felt strange there. _Everything would be fine so long as she had them._

“Naruto,” she said then, flopping back to stare at the blue sky above, lifting her hand as though she could grab a hold of the sky blue blanket above her. “I want to find him…”

Naruto blinked then, looking over at her, a slightly confused expression drawn across his face as he did so. “Uh, who, Sakura?” he asked, having dropped the honorifics awhile back. Sakura was glad for that. _Because it symbolised they were closer. Because the sound of her name from his lips sounded so much different compared to the way it fell from the bullies’ tongues. They were best friends._ They would be best friends forever too – into the pure lands and beyond.

“My father,” she explained, squinting up at the sun, letting the light flood through her fingers. “I want to find him.” She wanted to track him down and ask him _why_. Why he wasn’t there. Why her mother always had such a sad expression on her face whenever she spoke of him. She wanted to know all of that and more, a burning thirst for _knowledge_ welling up within.

It was a not particularly well-known fact that Haruno Sakura was a rather intelligent and prodigious child. Truly, she had learnt to walk and talk in her first year, surprising and alarming her mother who had refused to spread any gossip about how wonderful and bright her child was. Sakura knew the bullying would have only been worse if her mother had done just that, and she was forever grateful for her mother’s silence. But that was the only real part of her which was growing at a good pace. _Her body on the other hand…_

A frown twisted at her lips, and she mulled over the many inches Naruto and everyone else seemed to have on her. It wasn’t just the height, but the composition of her body too. She had oodles of baby fat which didn’t seem to be going anywhere. It made her different. _And no matter what her mother and her best friend said, she didn’t like it._ Something felt strange, and Sakura—

She didn’t like it. She didn’t like it at all.

“I don’t get the big deal ‘bout your dad,” Naruto muttered, swinging his legs back and forth as they lay there, legs dangling off the engawa. “It’s not like he’s here… you ‘aven’t even seen ‘im before.” A frown was set on his face then, and Sakura scowled. “It’s jus’ us. You don’t need tah worry ‘bout some guy you’ve never met before!”

“He’s my father!” Sakura grumbled. “And _I want_ to find him. It’s why I’m gonna become a shinobi – so I can find him and he can be super proud of me.”

Naruto sat up then. “Why’d he be proud of you? You’ve never met ‘im before…” he asked, tilting his head, azure blue eyes boring into her green ones with an odd intensity.

“’Cause I’m his daughter, and if I become a shinobi I’ll be more like he was,” she explained, frowning at her dear friend. “Mama always told he was a hero… and… and I feel like I can get closer to him if I… do this.” Sakura pulled herself into a seated position, glancing over at him, worry curling in her gut at the oddly blank look on Naruto’s face at her words. “I wanna be as cool as he was.”

“Huh…” Naruto blinked, seemingly shaking himself from the strange state he’d fallen into. “Cool. Imma be Hokage though, Sakura!” he all but sang.

Sakura grinned, a bright thing full of teeth. “And I’ll be the best warrior under your command!” she declared, clapping their hands together – a promise for the future. One she swore never to forget.

* * *

Swallowing thickly, Sakura frowned up at her mother, not forgetting her promise to Naruto. She was going to be one of the strongest warriors under her best friend’s command, and this was her first step along that route. She couldn’t fail. She wouldn’t.

“This is a sword style passed along through the Haruno Family,” her mother explained, staring down at her levelly with green eyes which were so much sharper than usual. “Whilst I come from a samurai lineage though, you, dear daughter, are training to be a shinobi – which means you will likely fight by a different set of rules compared to my own.”

“I understand,” Sakura mumbled, swallowing as she held the practice sword. It wasn’t as heavy as the real thing, though her mother had said once she was bigger and more trained in its use she might be allowed a live blade with which to practice with. She had only caught a glimpse of live blades before – well, until the academy instructor had shown them live, albeit blunted, kunai. She had even been allowed to touch it, at least until she had passed it carefully over to the other boy in the neighbouring seat who had promptly sliced his finger open with it.

The tools of a shinobi, however, looked nothing like the weapons her mother had stored away in their home. They were so very beautiful. Sakura could still remember the time her mother had shown them to her, and she marvelled at the memory of the silvery, polished metal of both the katana and the throwing daggers. Each of them had a very specific design emblazoned on them, both the blade and a little etched mirror of that same design on the blade. _A rayed sun._ Sakura hummed at the memory of that rayed sun, musing on the way people always claimed her hair shone in the sunlight.

Yet another thing which singled her out. Sakura huffed at the memory, before she remembered what her mother had said about emotions and the arts of the blade. _Anger blinds._ She sucked in a sharp breath, recalling the promise to Naruto as she set her lips into a frown and watched her mother. She would become great – great enough to stand at the very top with her best friend. _Great enough to make her father proud… wherever he was._ And if that greatness started with pushing aside the words which so many people spat at her. She could feel the tears biting at the corners of her eyes. _But she wasn’t alone anymore – she had her mother and she had Naruto._ They were the only two who mattered. Her finger twisted a lock of golden hair around the digit, and she stared at the golden colouring she had inherited from the father she had never met. _Well… There were three people who mattered._

“Sakura, don’t get distracted,” her mother said sternly, and Sakura jumped, attention snapping back to the present as she flushed under her mother’s telling gaze. “You’re going to be a strong little shinobi, aren’t you?”

Scowling at the reminder of her lacking height and growth, Sakura stood straighter, green eyes locking with her mother’s matching ones. “Yes!” she declared, frowning at her mother’s chuckle.

“Then let’s go through the motions again,” she said, and Sakura nodded sharply, a blush tinting her rounded cheeks as her mother only cooed at how adorable she was and patted her head in response to her enthusiasm.

* * *

They were in the same class at the academy, and Sakura was oh so grateful for that. _She wasn’t alone, vulnerable to the teasing and mocking of the other children her age._ Sakura smiled, sitting next to Naruto, uncaring as to the other person perched on the end of their three-person bench. _They probably only had mean things to say, and Sakura didn’t want to hear more of those._ She had Naruto, and Naruto was all she needed.

Sakura only hoped she didn’t mess anything up. He was her first friend – she was completely inexperienced in that manner. _What if she messed up and he decided to stop being friends with her?_ Sakura didn’t want that. They were meant to be together – best friends – forever, and Sakura was going to do anything to ensure it stayed that way.

_Maybe she would invite him over for kunai practice?_ Sakura tilted her head, gathering her courage to ask as Mizuki-sensei went around, handing back the results of their first test. She had studied hard for it, and dimly, she wondered if Naruto had done the same time. She probably ought to have invited him over so they could’ve revised together. That was something friends did, _didn’t they?_ Chewing on her lip, she accepted the marked test paper, a smile blooming on her face as she spied her score. _Only three marks lost._

“Naruto,” she whispered as their class started to pack up, ready to head home with their results from their first couple of days. “How’d you do?”

Her best friend only clenched at his test paper, biting at his lip as he stared at the piece of paper set before him. Curious, Sakura peered over his shoulder, eyes widening when she spotted the big fat zero written in red ink.

Eyes roaming the page, she smiled hesitantly. “Maybe we can revise together nex—” Sakura cut off, staring hard at one of Naruto’s answers, bringing out her own sheet. “Hey,” she said, frowning as she compared their answers. “Mizuki-sensei must’ve marked that wrong.” Sakura glanced between their marked papers. “Yeah. Look!” She pointed at their answers. The same – but Naruto’s had a big cross next to it. Grabbing Naruto by the hand, she dragged her bestest friend to the very front of the classroom. “Mizuki-sensei!” she called, holding up the two test papers. “You marked Naruto’s wrong! Look,” she said, holding up the two sheets. “He’s got some of the same answers at me, but – see?”

Mizuki-sensei smiled then, taking out his marking brush then, and Sakura grinned at Naruto then. “It would seem I’ve marked one of these wrong then,” he said, and she hummed happily as she waited for Naruto’s actual score to come. It barely took him a minute to correct the marking. “Here.” Mizuki-sensei handed the two papers back, and Sakura frowned as she took in the changed red scrawl over her _own_ test paper.

Sakura blinked, looking between Mizuki-sensei and her changed mark, tears biting at the corners of her eyes. _His smile didn’t seem so friendly anymore._ “But… but—” Her lip wobbled, and Sakura felt her hands ball up into little fists as she heard sniggers sound out from behind her.

“The freak actually thought she did well?” a voice murmured from behind her, and Sakura felt herself hunch up at the words and the stares she could feel boring into her.

“Such a shame, Sakura-chan,” Mizuki-sensei drawled, and Sakura flinched at the _coldness_ in his eyes as he stared at her. “You really should be more… careful… of who you associate with,” he said, eyes drifting over to where Naruto stood next to her, looking determinedly away, his ears burning a bright red. “Otherwise their bad habits will only drag you down.” Sakura stumbled back, tears filling her eyes, anger coursing through her. _Because she had thought the adults would be different there for some reason._ She felt Mizuki-sensei’s eyes on her then, and she felt as they roamed over the tips of her pointed ears as she stood there, humiliated.

“Sakura.” Naruto’s hand closed around her own like a lifeline, and he tugged her away from the classroom. _Away from the laughter she could hear ringing in her ears_. “C’mon.”

Blindly, Sakura followed after him, sandals scuffing the ground as she followed him numbly. “Why’d he do that?” she asked, tears finally escaping her eyes as she stared at the abysmally low mark she now had on her test paper. “I don’t get it.”

“Grown-ups don’ like me,” Naruto said, and Sakura frowned. “’s no different to usual… ‘s only ‘coz you got involved that he made you fail…”

“But he’s not supposed to do that,” Sakura hissed, fury burning in her like water gushing up from a fountain, and Sakura wanted _Mizuki_ to pay. _Pay for the hurt he caused her and Naruto._ Her teeth ground together. _Anger blinds._ Her mother’s words came to her then, and Sakura’s head snapped up – the answer to their problems found. “Hey! We need to get our parents involved! Adults can fight adults better—” Sakura froze, abruptly aware of some faux pas made as Naruto’s expression darkened and closed off.

“Don’t got any,” he mumbled, and Sakura’s eyes widened at that. _How hadn’t she figured it out?_ She was supposed to be intelligent, and yet…

“Na-Naruto,” she whispered, embarrassed and frantic at her words. She had made a mistake, and it was a big one. “I-I-I’m sorry, I-I d-didn’t—” Her arms moved automatically, wrapping around her friend. _She didn’t want him to run away and leave her and never come back._ “I didn’t mean to make you upset! Please don’t be mad. Please! Don’t be sad, either ‘cause sad ‘s no good.”

“’s okay, Sakura,” Naruto said, a melancholy look on his face as he stared at his feet, twiddling his thumbs as they stood there in the middle of a fortunately rather quiet street. People never looked at Naruto nicely, and so Sakura was glad nobody else was really there to overhear their conversation. “I don’ really remember ‘em… Didn’t tell you… Jus’ didn’t want you to make fun o’ me…”

Sakura frowned, indignant. “I would never!” she declared, hurt at his words. _How could he think she’d do something like that?_ “Never, you hear me,” she said, pulling away to fold her arms, puffing out her cheeks in righteous anger at the thought that her _bestest_ friend thinking she would make fun of him for not having parents. _She, herself, only had her mother._

Naruto’s hand grabbed at her own, expression frantic as he wove his fingers around, grip tightening as though he thought she might vanish. “I know you wouldn’t,” he said, shame-faced, gaze averted from her own. “’s jus’ sometimes other kids laugh at me ‘coz I don’t have a family.”

“Well,” Sakura mumbled, turning her gaze to look towards her house. _Her home._ “You got me and my mother now,” she said, pulling her bestest friend over towards their sanctuary from the hateful gazes the village gave them. _They weren’t going to stop them – she had made a promise to Naruto._ She needed to get stronger, as did Naruto, and if the mean adults weren’t about to help them, then she would rely on the one who wasn’t mean. _Her mother would sort things out, at least until she could do just that._ After all, her father had always solved the problems which came his way, and Sakura wanted to be more like him.

_Even if she knew nothing about what he looked like nor his name._

* * *

Haruno Mebuki knew something was wrong the minute her daughter stormed into the house, tears still fresh on her face. Sighing, she watched as her precious flower daughter dragged her best friend into the room. “Mother,” Sakura said, her face solemn and serious. _It was such an odd, yet absolutely adorable expression on her face._ Mebuki hated that no one else seemed to appreciate it. _They were too busy focusing on the pointed ears and wondering when her daughter would come into her ‘heritage’ and try to eat their offspring._ She scoffed mentally at the thought. Civilians of Konoha, or so she was learning, were complete and utter idiots. “Mizuki-sensei is…” Sakura trailed off, holding up two test papers. “I got the answers right, but he changed it ‘cause I told him he marked Naruto’s wrong.”

Green eyes narrowed, and Mebuki looked over the test, jaw clenching as she saw her daughter’s and Naruto’s correct answers marked incorrectly. _For some reason she had thought the shinobi of Konoha would be different to their civilian counterparts._ “You were right to bring this to me,” she muttered, fingers drumming on the table she sat at as she mulled over what to do. “I can deal with this,” she said, smiling, ruffling her daughter’s golden locks. “But just out of curiosity… what would you have done if I couldn’t solve this for you?”

Sakura frowned, the expression marring her daughter’s cherubic little face. _She really wished her husband was there to see their precious little daughter._ A soft smile curved at her lips as her daughter sat there, lost deep in thought. _If the city hadn’t been attacked… if she hadn’t been transported back to the Elemental nations…_

“Well,” Mebuki said, deciding to take pity on her daughter and her dear friend. “You’re both training to be little shinobi, whilst I come from a samurai lineage… and while the latter confront their enemy head on, as I’m going to do, the former tend to indulge in sabotage and sneak attacks…”

Naruto frowned, whisker marks on his cheek seeming to twitch as an answer seemingly came to him then. “You mean… like pranks or somethin’?”

Mebuki grinned. _And if she was encouraging them to prank everyone who looked at them like they didn’t belong… Well, that was Konoha’s problem._ “Exactly, little warrior,” she said, ruffling the blonde locks so similar, and yet so very different from her daughter’s own. “Though _officially,_ I’m not giving you permission to do anything of the sort.”

The frown reappeared on the little boy’s face, and Mebuki sighed at the thought that there was no one there for him. _No one to coo and him, nor pinch his adorable cheeks._ Really, she thought the whiskers were adorable. _Her daughter had pointed ears, for crying out loud._ “So… we can’t prank anyone?”

Sakura nudged him then. “Nu uh.” She shook her head, a wide grin splitting her lips. “Mother said _officially,_ which means she’ll pretend to know nothing. We gotta be sneaky – like _real_ shinobi!” she said, clapping her hands together excitedly.

“Mmh,” Mebuki murmured. “I was thinking about letting you both do some arts and crafts here anyway, so we’ll have to get some supplies,” she continued, acting as though she were oblivious to the – dare she say – fox-like grins on their little faces. “If some glitter or paint or a little bit of string just happen to go missing…”

“Sakura’s mum – you’re really cool, y’know!” Naruto yelled, and Mebuki only laughed.

“Thank you, Naruto-kun,” she said, picking up the two test papers then. “I’ll be off to visit the academy then… I believe this _Mizuki-sensei_ will still be there,” she said, spitting out the imbecile’s name. _He had dared to try and sabotage her daughter and Naruto._ Mebuki had sworn to protect them both, so that was what she would do.

“Let’s go then!” Naruto exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of his feet, unable to sit nor stand still at the prospect of going back to face the man who had wronged them both.

“Ah, ah, Naruto-kun,” Mebuki said, holding up a finger. “I need to get ready first.”

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto wasn’t quite sure what was going on at first, but when his best friend’s mum came back down the stairs she had climbed, she looked really pretty. She looked dressed up, like the women who giggled in high-pitched voices while clinging to their significant other, but at the same time – so much _more_ compared to those. _Maybe it was ‘coz she was the first person to pay attention to him. The first person to fight for him against those hateful stares always directed his way._ He hadn’t cried as much as he’d used to after meeting his best friend and her mum.

“Come on!” Sakura held out her hand, a smile on her face as they followed after one Haruno Mebuki. Unease curled in his gut, and Naruto wondered. He wondered if Sakura’s mum would succeed against Mizuki-sensei and his mean, unfair marking. _He wondered what excuse Mizuki-sensei would use to turn them against him._ People always warned others about him, whether they be adults or children.

Naruto hated it.

He didn’t want to lose his first and only friend. Sakura was great, and she even had pointed ears. Naruto had never seen anyone with ears like that. “You think your mum will win ‘gainst meanie Mizuki-sensei?” he asked, fear coiling in his gut like a serpent ready to strike.

“Mother is awesome,” Sakura declared in the way only she could. “It’s why father married her, duh.”

“Oh…”

Sakura blinked, biting her lip then. “Sorry… I keep forgetting…” she trailed off, looking terribly ashamed even as they drew nearer to the academy. “I-I didn’t mean—”

“’s okay, Sakura,” he said, for once not feeling an odd sense of stinging loss whenever he thought of his parents. _Whenever he looked at other kids with their parents as they doted on them. Whenever he pictured two people standing behind him, watching over him, only to turn and find no one there._ “I don’ mind.”

“You two should stay outside the room,” Mebuki said, cutting the pair of them off, and Naruto blinked as he realised his feet had led him into the very same building they had made a quick escape from a short while before. “I’ll be back before you know it,” she continued, knocking on the door to the room where Mizuki-sensei and the others always lingered after the academy day was through.

* * *

“Apologies for bothering you,” Mebuki said, entering the room which had gone rather quiet as she stood there, lips painted red. _Red like the blood of this Mizuki-sensei which she wanted to spill._ “I’m looking for one _Mizuki-sensei,_ as I believe my daughter calls you,” she continued, green eyes flickering between the lot of them, her smile only growing sharper as a male with pale blue hair stepped forwards. _He was so very young,_ Mebuki mused, eyes narrowing. _But it wouldn’t excuse him, nor what he had done._

“That would be me,” Mizuki said, smiling politely. _As though he hadn’t sent her daughter home in tears for complaining on her friend’s behalf._ “How may I help you…?”

“Haruno Mebuki,” she said, smiling pleasantly still, snickering from with the safety of the depths of her own mind as she spotted the slight twitch to his expression at her name. _Because there was only one obvious reason why she would be there so soon after the academy day had finished._ “And I’m here, because of these,” she continued, lifting the two test papers. “My daughter brought these to me, and I simply couldn’t help but wonder about my daughter’s _precious_ sensei.” Sighing softly, Mebuki seated herself on the nearest desk, staring down at the _pathetic excuse for a man._ “I mean, there are only two options here: either my daughter’s sensei is an incompetent, bumbling buffoon who can’t tell a correct answer from an incorrect one…” Mebuki smiled like a shark. “Or, for some _strange_ reason, a _loyal_ Konoha shinobi is deliberately sabotaging two of the next generation of Konoha’s shinobi…”

Mebuki crossed her legs, finger on her chin as if in question as she tilted her head to savour the oddly alarmed expression on his face.

“Do tell,” she said, “which of those options is it?”


	3. the golden duo

One green eye and one cerulean blue one stared through the tiny gap – the door having been inched open just a fraction by two sets of curious hands. Sakura preened, staring at her mother’s admittedly rather small back. It had never seemed as large as it did in that instant, and Sakura only ended up wishing she had been born with those beautiful pink locks. But she had her father’s hair. Her mother had said that time and time again, along with his skin colouring, and admittedly a lot of other things. _It was part of what made her a ‘freak’ there._ Sakura wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward the horrid thoughts off. Her mother had already told her to stop entertaining those kinds of thoughts because _Konoha folk, the majority of the time, were complete and utter imbeciles without a single braincell to their name._ Mizuki no doubt fell under that number too. Sakura nodded vigorously at the thought of that. Mizuki was stupid even though he was a _sensei_ and her mother was so very incredibly awesome. Those were the facts she knew in that instant.

“Your mum is _super_ cool, Sakura,” Naruto whispered loudly.

Sakura only hummed and nodded, eye riveted on the unfolding stare down, part of her taking note of the unusual shade of white her so-called sensei’s face had turned at her mother’s words. “I know,” she murmured, fingers curling in those straight golden locks of hers, and she wondered if she wanted to be more like her mother or more like the man she had never met. _And yet her mother told her the most wonderful stories about him._

Her skin was paler than her mother’s, almost luminescent, especially in the moonlight, which often meant she had to slap herself with a hearty amount of sun cream when the summer months rolled about. Not that she had tried to venture out too often until she met Naruto. She liked the park, yes, but the people there… less so. They hated both herself and Naruto. Sakura didn’t understand them. She didn’t think she wanted to. They didn’t like her solely because of her father too, and the appearance he had given her – what with her pointed ears and her general shortness. _Though her mother had oftentimes said he was taller than her, so maybe that wasn’t from him?_ Her mother had said she was a mixture of her parents, as all children were for reasons which would be explained a bit more when she had grown up a bit.

“Neh, look at meanie Mizuki’s face!” Naruto crowed, seemingly taking as much delight as her from their so-called sensei’s rapidly paling face. He looked sick as he stumbled over his words, and from somewhere inside, Sakura’s sharp ears caught the sounds of a muffled laugh. A smile curved at her lips then, glee palpable at the thought of someone else finding Mizuki’s situation funny. _He shouldn’t have been mean to Naruto,_ Sakura mused, nodding fiercely. Anyone who hurt them like their no-good sensei would end up punished, whether through the budding prank ideas Naruto would be coming up with, or by her mother herself.

“He shouldn’t have messed with our scores,” Sakura said, puffing up her cheeks as she drew back from the doorway, folding her arms as she did so. “He did something bad and wrong, and now he’s getting punished for it.”

Naruto turned to her then, blinking owlishly. “Yeah!” he said, grinning brightly, and Sakura found herself grinning back. His cheeriness was oddly contagious, and it was something Sakura was more than happy to catch. It beat being miserable and cowering under the glares and fingers pointed at her which always screamed _freak!_

“Do you think we could revise together next time?” Sakura asked, looking at her bestest friend in the whole, entire, wide world. “Then maybe we could get full marks together, and nobody would be able to look down at us…” She shifted on her feet then. “We could have a sleepover or something – I’ve always wanted to have one of those!”

“That sounds _super_ cool!” Naruto declared, excitement mirroring her own deep in those sky blue eyes of his. “But our next test is a whole ‘nother week away,” he said, frowning then. “So we oughta wait until it’s closer!”

Sakura frowned. “I suppose that makes sense,” she mumbled, feeling terribly disappointed at the prospect of Naruto not leaping at the chance to come over that same night. _Had she done something wrong? Naruto would tell her if she upset him, wouldn’t he?_ Her hands shook. _What if he didn’t want to be friends anymore?_

“Neh, do you wanna practice our kunai-thingy throwing tonight?” Naruto asked. “Until I hafta go home? We got a test on that comin’ up soon, don’t we?”

Her face lit up at the prospect of spending more time with her best and only friend. “Yeah! I think it’s just what mother calls a ‘preliminary’ test or something, ‘cause some people come from clans and have already been trained – so it’s, like, something to judge our base level of skill,” she explained, feeling terribly proud of herself for explaining that matter to her dear friend. “Mother can probably show us something – though she’s descended from samurai in the Land of Iron, so she’s more about sword techniques than throwing knives,” Sakura continued, peeking once more at her mother as she continued talking about adult things in there with Mizuki-not-a-proper-sensei.

“Your mum is the _best,_ Sakura,” Naruto said, sounding like a broken record at that point, and Sakura only smiled and preened at the compliment towards the only piece of family she had ever had.

“Mmh,” Sakura grunted in acknowledgement, a smile in place on her lips as the door slid back open gently, revealing her mother standing there with a soft smile on her own face as she looked down at the two of them there.

“Well then,” she said, holding out the two test papers with corrected scores scrawled over them in blue ink that time. “Here you go,” her mother declared, giving them each their own paper. “I think you’ll find that both scores are correct this time – mostly because that foolish Mizuki-sensei fellow wasn’t the one to mark them. Truly, I don’t quite understand how he became a sensei with that level of knowledge,” she murmured, a fox-like smile on her lips as she spoke loud enough for those in the other room to hear.

Naruto giggled, taking the hand her mother offered out to him, just as Sakura did the exact same thing on the other side. They stayed that way all through their little walk back to their home, until they were safely back within the four walls of the Haruno Household’s garden. _Until they were home._

* * *

“Good morning class.” An unfamiliar man – barely more than a teenager, if Sakura had to guess – stood in front of them all and greeted them. Sakura shared a glance with Naruto then, biting her lip as she wondered where Mizuki-not-a-sensei had gotten to. _It was always him doing the greetings there._ Frowning, Sakura took in the visage before her, staring intently at the scar slashed across his nose then. “Due to _unavoidable_ circumstances,” he said, a frown marring his face for naught more than a single second before his expression smoothed out, “it appears Mizuki will no longer be in charge of this class, or any for that matter. Teaching didn’t seem to be his calling, so you will no longer be seeing him around.” Dark brown hair was pulled back into a spiky ponytail, a forehead protector tied in its intended place as his eyes scanned over them all. “My name is Umino Iruka, and so you may refer to me as Iruka-sensei, or Umino-sensei – whichever you’d prefer.” Eyes as dark as the midnight sky flickered over her, and Sakura bristled at the look on his face even as he moved onto Naruto’s tiny form who sat there eagerly looking on at their _new_ sensei.

But when those dark eyes narrowed, their _new_ sensei’s expression darkening when those _cold_ eyes settled on her bestest friend, Sakura felt her heart sinking. Her hand snaked out, grabbing a hold of Naruto’s own even as her dear friend glanced at her in confusion, blissfully ignorant to Iruka-sensei’s dislike for him. He had even looked at her strangely. Sakura supposed she had her own oddly unearthly looks to thank for that. Adults had oftentimes said she looked like she belonged in the forests with nature and the unnatural demon who had fathered her. Sakura, wisely, paid little heed to those words, though they hardly detracted from the fact she looked _like she didn’t belong_ for some strange reason she couldn’t yet perceive.

“Sakura?” Naruto glanced at her then, taking his attention off the chalkboard as Iruka-sensei began their first lesson of the day. “What’s wrong—”

“Uzumaki-kun!” Iruka’s voice rang out sharply, and Sakura’s free hand curled into a fist at the sniggers which rang out around the room. “Pay attention! This is no time to be chatting with your friends.”

“I think he means _friend,_ ” a quiet voice whispered, and Sakura gritted her teeth at the group of three boys she could see in the corner of her eye. She _hated_ the fresh round of sniggers those words set off. _She didn’t understand why people had to be so mean – why others had to pick on those they believed to be weaker than themselves._ Because they were stupid, imbecilic nimrods, according to her mother at least.

“That applies to all of you,” Iruka called sharply, and the sniggers died away.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at their new sensei, uncertain of whether he would be a decent sensei to them – or whether she would have to talk her mother into giving him the same treatment that she had given to Mizuki-not-a-sensei. Her stomach twisted, but she paid attention to their _shiny_ new Iruka-sensei as he began the day of classes in full.

She didn’t want to have to run back to her mother in tears again. She wished both adults and children in Konohagakure weren’t as mean as they were. She wished she had the strength to stand by herself, but she was too small and weak. _She hadn’t been able to fend off her own bullies._ Even Naruto was stronger – _better_ – than her in that regard, no matter how Sakura wished it wasn’t so. Part of her even felt jealous at his ability to do that, but he was her best friend. Her only friend. She wouldn’t let something like her own _inability_ come between them.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she went and did what she did best – she paid attention and learnt, letting herself soak up every scrap of information she could, because knowledge was power, in the words of her mother that was, and Sakura strived to be a bit more like her mother. _And a bit more courageous like her father was._ It was clear her father had dealt with any ostracization better than she, and when she met him – because she would find him no matter what someday – she wanted him to be proud of her.

So when Iruka-sensei announced the end of class at the very end of the day, when the sun was lowering itself down the skyline, Sakura found herself dragging her feet as she packed away her things.

“C’mon Sakura!” Naruto whined, bouncing up and down on his feet as he waited there. “Your mum is making ramen for dinner tonight so we _can’t_ be late!”

Sakura smiled then, stomach twisting then as she dredged together some sort of strength she hadn’t known lingered there. “Go ahead, Naruto,” she said, still packing away ever so slowly, part of her aware they were the only two left in the room with their new sensei. _Who was studiously avoiding them, not even looking in their direction._ Sakura didn’t know if the cold glare or the ignorance of them hurt more. “I’ll catch up!”

Naruto frowned then, but she only smiled sunnily at him, making shooing motions with her hands, ignoring the way they shook ever so slightly as she continued to put her things away even as her best friend vanished out the door. The zipping up of her bag sounded so terribly loud in the quiet stillness which descended over the room.

Her feet padded down the steps to the very front of the room, and she paused then, staring across the room from where she stood – backlit by the sunlight flooding through the window – towards Iruka-sensei as he fiddled about with the chalkboard. Hands curled around the straps of her backpack, and her mother’s words drifted through her ears. She straightened her back, green eyes narrowed and bright, like the embers of an emerald fire as she turned them on her sensei who still stood with his back towards her.

“I don’t like the way you look at Naruto.” The words pierced the emptiness, sounding so terribly loud to her own ears as she stood there, golden hair practically glowing with the light of the sun behind her.

Dark eyes met her own, something quivering deep inside her at that look, and she tightened her grip on her bag straps to keep her hands from trembling.

“Know this,” she said, fighting to keep the quiver from her voice as she tried to emulate her mother and that iron strength she always seemed to hold. “If you hurt him, then you _will_ pay.”

Silence reigned for a few seconds, and Sakura fervently wished for an earth jutsu to swallow her whole and hide her within the earth. “Is that a threat?” he enquired, and a shiver rolled down her spine as she remembered he was a fully trained shinobi. _But this was her trying to be brave, and she wouldn’t falter and crumble – her mother hadn’t, so neither would she._ The only way to move onwards was to keep her head held high and promise retribution upon the heads of her bullies. _She had never managed either of them before._

“Haruno don’t make threats,” she said, voice closer to a hiss to conceal how it fluctuated as her legs shook ever so slightly. “We make promises.” Piece said, she all but bolted for the door, drawing it to a close behind her. The weight of what she had just done – _oh she had totally threatened a sensei and she was in so much trouble no doubt about it_ – came crashing down upon her like a tidal wave.

Her legs crumpled underneath her then, a bright blush blooming on her cheeks, _because what had she been thinking – that had been a stupid thing to do._

“Neh, Sakura…”

Sakura stiffened, head snapping around to spy Naruto waiting there in the hallway. He offered out his hand to her then, and Sakura could only blink dumbly as her cheeks burnt that much hotter. _He had totally heard what she said, and that was so very embarrassing to her._ She had probably sounded like a little _freak_ pretending to be brave.

“Thanks!”

She blinked then, dumbly watching as Naruto reached down to grab a hold of her hand. “No… problem,” she mumbled, feeling oddly lightheaded as Naruto merely grinned at her wider than ever, and pulled her up and away.

“C’mon!” he called, pulling her along by the hand, and Sakura could only stagger into a run behind him. “We can’t be late for ramen!”


	4. the changing times

Seasons passed with the changing of the trees around them, and little Haruno Sakura and little Uzumaki Naruto grew and grew. _Or so still little Haruno Sakura would have loved to say_. Their lives were changing, even if they remained constant in each other’s, and even if the village remained firmly against them. Sakura had long since figured out it would be them against the village for a long time yet, no matter how her bright-eyed best friend claimed otherwise. _He was a bundle of ‘optimism’._ At least, that was what her mother had called him more than once whenever he declared his intentions to take the Hokage Seat. _She didn’t know why he wanted the acknowledgement of a village which treated him like the dirt beneath their feet, but Naruto was her first and only friend and she didn’t want for him to think she doubted in him._ That was something she could never afford to do.

Umino Iruka changed somewhat as the red fell from the trees, little auburn leaves curling and drying upon the ground until they made a crisp crunch when they walked over the fallen leaves to reach the academy each morning. He became less colder as time went by, and Sakura wasn’t certain whether her mother had pulled him over at some point to give him a stern talking to or whether her words had that much of an impact. She wouldn’t bet on the latter, if she were completely honest. Though the fact of the matter was that Iruka-sensei wasn’t as cold to her and Naruto anymore. Sakura wasn’t quite sure what to feel about that. _But at the very least, he was better than Mizuki-not-a-proper-sensei._ Though Sakura wasn’t quite so sure where the blue-haired man had scurried off to. Nobody had even seen him around the village, and Iruka-sensei had looked terribly grim when his name was brought up in class. _And something told Sakura she didn’t want to know the reason behind it._

All her classmates around her were growing as summer turned to winter and back again. They all grew in height and width, losing a lot of the baby fat which had lingered as they grew up and gained more and more muscle thanks to the academy’s education and yearly survival training. It only made her feel like more of an _outsider._ Because though everyone else grew so much in height and mass, she grew so very little – barely a centimetre if that – and the baby fat was still going strong in her cheeks and wrists, and literally everywhere else. Though it thinned ever so slightly as her little muscles grew, it wasn’t enough to make the differences less obvious. Out of everything, her hair grew the most, falling down to reach her back, and her mother soon taught her how to braid it akin to how her father’s people did.

And so the seasons changed, Haruno Sakura braided her hair and didn’t grow, and Uzumaki Naruto shot up like a beanstalk compared to her. Jealousy burned within her _because she wanted to grow up too._ But that wasn’t to be. She had entered the academy looking alarmingly akin to a toddler, and she had barely grown since then. If she was lucky, there was perhaps a centimetre at most a year.

“Maybe it’s a bloodline limit or somethin’?” Naruto said one day as they sat in the garden, legs dangling from the engawa as they stared around the family gardens. “Your mum is super secretive whenever it comes to your dad… and I’m bettin’ you take more after him.”

Sakura twirled her golden locks around on her finger, the braids she had put in earlier still fixed in place. “Maybe,” she grumbled, cuddling her knees to her chest, all the while mulling over Naruto’s words. _And the fact that maybe, just maybe, Naruto didn’t quite understand her situation._ No matter how people scorned him and called him ‘fox brat’ he had never mentioned anything about being made not to feel human. _Because he was human._ Sakura was an intelligent girl, far more than any other girl her age had any right to be – _her mother said that she had developed faster mentally compared to those her age, which was what had made her seem different, and she had been ostracised because of that… well, alongside her already strange appearance that was_ – and she had noticed that her mother had never once referred to her father as a _man_. Perhaps it was an odd thing for her to pick up, but when literally everyone else around her assumed her to have been fathered by something demonic or unearthly…

She had never quite managed to gather the courage to ask her mother more about him – her father – no matter how much she wished to hear more about him. After a certain point in her life, the bedtime stories had just seemed _wrong_ in a sense. They didn’t fit what she knew about Konohagakure and the rest of the Elemental Nations. Dimly, she wondered if her father came from some far off distant land. _Maybe they would have to travel by ship to see him or something?_

But in her mind, that didn’t explain why he wasn’t there. She was scared to hear about the answer, and so she was frightened by it. _It was a stupid thing to be scared of – knowledge, that was._ She had hungered for it when she had first entered the academy. She wondered where things had gone wrong so that she would be afraid to learn something as simple as the truth.

There was only so much she could piece together from the scant snippets of information given to her, and part of her was scared of making too many wrong assumptions. She just wanted to meet with her father already and put those _scary_ thoughts to rest with a truth that was visible and easily confirmable. Truly, she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore.

A frown pulled at her lips, and she hugged her knees to her chest. “I want to find him,” she muttered quietly, and having been her friend for a good few years by then, Naruto knew exactly who it was she was talking about.

But rather than telling her they would in time, Naruto stood up, offering out a hand to her. “Neh, you wanna go ‘n’ prank the village?” he asked, and Sakura blinked a few times before a wide grin split her lips, revealing a set of pearly white teeth.

_Anything to keep her mind off the spiral of questions raging about inside that pretty little golden head of hers._

* * *

The face of the Third Hokage looked alarmingly good in geisha make-up, or so Sakura mused to herself as she examined her handiwork from the roof of the clothing store – uncaring as white and red paint dribbled down the roof tiles. They had once kicked both Naruto and herself out for being _monsters and freaks_ that they didn’t need tainting their products or scaring off their clientele. As such, it was a prime location for pranks and the like.

Sakura had a long memory, and a vicious streak to match. She could hardly help the swell of glee she felt whenever something happened to that place. _Just desserts._ What went around, came around, or so Sakura thought viciously as she let the white and red paints splatter on their roof tiles. A sigh escaped her lips, and she eyed the artful painting done on the First and Second Hokage faces. Truly, Naruto’s skills with painting had grown ever since their first prank. Though Sakura supposed she could partially accredit that to her mother.

Ever since her mother had found out about Naruto’s less than stellar upbringing, she had sought to rectify it. That, much to Naruto’s dismay, involved literature and handwriting practice. _The latter being very important to her best friend, because he was an Uzumaki._ Haruno Mebuki didn’t know much of the Uzumaki Clan, only that there were scattered remnants of it, the clan having been destroyed thanks to their knowledge of sealing. That knowledge was passed to Naruto, her bestest friend, and it lit a fire within him – a burning passion to figure out more about the art of sealing. _Fuinjutsu,_ or so it was called. Her mother, sadly enough, couldn’t help him there, what with her lacking knowledge of shinobi arts. _Though she certainly turned the pair of them into budding kenjutsu masters by the time they were ready for graduation._ Even if Sakura was still so terribly lacking in height and mass. She still looked like a damned toddler, and that was a sore spot for her. _Proof she was weird, different – a freak._

Surprisingly enough, sealing knowledge had come from a most unexpected source: Iruka-sensei. In the months following her weird threat – which neither of them liked to talk about – he had warmed up to the both of them, Naruto in particular. She had once caught Iruka-sensei treating her best friend to ramen. Though it was over bowls of ramen that they discussed tutoring in sealing. The Uzumaki style was said to be a lost art, but Iruka had quietly said that, should Naruto reach Chunin Rank, there might be resources he could access with the permission of the Hokage. And so Iruka-sensei was greeted with the passion which was an interested and incredibly motivated Uzumaki Naruto. _He took to the basic techniques shown to him like a duck to water._ A skill which had Sakura feeling terribly inadequate and jealous.

She didn’t know what she was particularly good at, and they were meant to be graduating tomorrow. Her heart pounded nervously at the thought, but the sudden shout had her moving. “UZUMAKI! HARUNO!” a voice roared, and Sakura only grinned as two chunin appeared.

_Time for the chase to begin._

Chakra pulsed in her feet, and she rocketed off, bouncing around, grinning and laughing as she led the two unfortunate souls towards what would become the main attraction of their prank. Using her smaller size to slip through smaller holes, she led the two chunin to the spot she and Naruto had agreed on, a grin pulling at her lips as their trap went off. Wire lashed out as the trap sprung, grunts of pain and their screeched names grating against their ears as she and her best friend were treated to the sight of two chunin bound together in shinobi-grade wire they had bought from Tenten’s Father’s shop – one of the few who had sold them anything. _Which was part of the reason why they had never been pranked by them._ The other reasoning being that the Tenten girl who was only a year older than them – not that Tenten really believed that when it came to Sakura and her unusual constitution – had shown them how to throw kunai and shuriken better.

“Ready?” Sakura asked, jumping up to the rooftops once more, gleefully emptying the rest of the paint over their unwitting victims who hissed in annoyance. _They couldn’t use hand signs, bound as they were, and they weren’t skilled enough to perform a seal-less substitution._

Naruto pulled the sack off where it had been stowed at his back, a gleeful laugh escaping him as they upended the bag of feathers over the heads of the unfortunate chunin who had been on duty that day. Their palms met with a slap, and Naruto threw the now empty bag to one side, the both of them glancing at each other and vanishing – what with the amount of noise the chunin were making.

“That was so satisfying!” Sakura exclaimed, skipping along next to her best friend, smiling hesitantly as her friend did the same. Nervousness was written all over his face, what with the graduation exam scheduled for the day after. _He was still having trouble with the clone jutsu._ Sakura hated the fact she was so gleeful at being able to do something better than him. _But so long as the exam didn’t involve that jutsu… It would only be one, and Sakura rather hoped for the test to be on the substitution jutsu. That was something they were both fairly good at._ “Did you see their faces?”

“Yeah!” Naruto crowed. “They turned all red and huffy, like that lady from last week!”

“They were also covered in white paint and feathers, which neither of them looked particularly happy with,” a joyous, yet terrifying voice sounded from behind them both, a hand landing on each of their heads and gripping as tightly as was comfortable – ensuring they couldn’t run away. Rather all they could do was crack their heads around to find a familiar face smiling at them the way only Iruka-sensei could smile when they were due for a stern talking to.

Sakura gulped. “Iruka—”

“—sensei,” Naruto finished off, the pair of them like two peas in a pod by that point. Though that didn’t mean Sakura wanted to wind up bound so close to her dearest and bestest friend as they were dragged back to the class they were skipping wrapped in rope and secure knots.

“Right class,” Iruka-sensei spoke them, a smile on his face as he clapped his hands together. “Thanks to a _certain pair_ we’ll be reviewing the transformation jutsu today.”

Their class erupted in groans and moans, most of which directed at them both as they sat there, bound together until Iruka-sensei let them loose to join in with the class activity.

Sakura, in an odd fit of childishness, stuck her tongue out at all of them.

* * *

Iruka-sensei and Minoru-sensei stood at the front of the class on that fateful day, and she shared a look with Naruto as they finished up with their written test papers. “—will be the clone jutsu.” Sakura felt her head snap back around, heart in her throat at the words spoken then – because out of the three basic jutsu it could have been, it had to be the one she had perfected, and yet Naruto couldn’t complete for the life of him.

Her eyes turned, but they didn’t meet the sky blue ones they wanted to. Rather, Naruto was sat, staring face down at his desk, worry scrawled all over his face, and Sakura felt her heart constrict painfully. _What was she supposed to go over and say?_ Things wouldn’t be alright. Not unless Naruto could miraculously figure out and solve whatever problem he had with the clone jutsu. She felt crushed then and there, _because she was supposed to become a shinobi with Naruto._ She had promised him.

Sakura chewed on her lip as the clock ticked, and all too soon her name was called, and she ventured out of the classroom, casting one more glance back at Naruto worriedly. _She would wait for him,_ she decided right then and there, and then she’d take him to her mother. _She would know what to do._ Sakura nodded then viciously. If she was ever in doubt, all she needed to do was ask her mother – Haruno Mebuki was a practical fountain of information.

Raising her head, she knocked on the door to the testing room, entering only when Iruka-sensei called out to her.

She passed with flying colours.

* * *

Naruto sat on the swings, eyes downcast. He had failed. He wasn’t going to be able to become a shinobi with Sakura as he wanted to. Shame welled in the pit of his belly, and silently, he cursed his inability to perform a simple clone jutsu. _If it had been anything else…_ Tears bit at the corners of his eyes, and Naruto scowled and wiped them away as quickly as he could. He had already avoided Sakura by sneaking out the back way, not wanting to face the shame of seeing her. _Of course she would have passed…_

“Naruto-kun?”

Blinking, he glanced up, tilting his head as he was met with the sight of Minoru-sensei.

* * *

Sakura glared at the clock on the mantlepiece, folding her arms as she tried her very best to conceal how _twitchy_ she felt at her best friend’s disappearance. Something was wrong. She knew that much, deep in her bones. It was a terribly eerie feeling – one which would not let her sit still for the life of her.

Tapping her finger against her cheek, she pouted at the thought of Naruto getting up to mischief without her at his side. Her mother sat opposite her, Konoha Standard open in front of her as she read the local civilian newspaper.

“Naruto’s doing something stupid,” she said, eyes boring daggers into the cake set out on the table. It was something her mother had worked on – perfecting the recipe that was – for that very day. It had meant to be a celebratory cake. _But it wasn’t a celebration without Naruto there at their side. It couldn’t be. Not if he didn’t pass._

Her mother only sighed, closing her eyes as she set her newspaper down and off to one side. “You feel it too, then?” she asked, a wry smile curving at her lips.

“Un.” Sakura nodded, a matching sigh escaping her as she tried to relax somewhat.

“Hard to believe he’s getting into trouble without his trusted partner at his side, eh?” her mother murmured, and Sakura only puffed out her babyish cheeks in a pout and a subsequent huff at the thought that Naruto might get up to mischief without her. _They were the Golden Duo for a reason._

A sharp knock at the door cut them off then, and Sakura glanced at the clock, and how very late it was. She jumped to her feet, eyes narrowed as her spine straightened. _Because there could only be one person knocking that late at night._ Her arms jerked, feet slapping against the floor as she walked jerkily towards the front door, ready to give the person on the other side an earful for running off and away from her. _And for daring to cause havoc without her to back him up._ She was the main brain behind their operations.

Wrenching the door open, she was met with a box in front of her face. The smell of ramen greeted her nostrils, along with the scent of blood. Her eyes narrowed even further.

“It’s Miso,” Naruto said. “Your favourite. And there’s enough for us all!” he said hurriedly, and Sakura only stared at the box which contained her favourite kind of ramen. It was Ichiraku’s too. She had grown weak – so very weak – to ramen over the years, and Ichiraku’s was the best ramen in the village.

Sakura snatched the takeout box. “I forgive you,” she muttered. “But only if you get in here and eat some cake.”

“Is there room for two?”

Sakura blinked, lifting her gaze, barely able to see over the large box of noodle-y goodness. “Iruka-sensei?”

“In the flesh,” he said, sounding terribly tired, and so Sakura waved them in, gave her mother the box of takeout, and blinked _hard_ as she caught sight of Naruto properly for the first time since opening the door. _He had a forehead protector._ Her eyes widened, a smile hesitantly forming on her face as she took in the sight of her best friend proudly wearing the Konoha Symbol.

Screaming and hugging ensued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I feel like I should tell you that I was never really planning on focusing too much on the whole growing aspect of things, and I'm thinking there'll be around two more chapters before we plunge into Arda, because this work (in case the summary of it didn't tip you off) was always going to be more to do with Sakura attempting to find and subsequently introduce herself to her father, and the forming of a Father-Daughter Relationship with cuteness, and probably some angsty stuff too.
> 
> So prepare yourselves for that. Since there'll be some big time skips coming up soon enough.


	5. the ankle biter

Hatake Kakashi _stared_ at the three children before him. According to their files, they were all twelve-years-old – on the cusp of puberty – but he wasn’t quite sure of that fact. The main reasoning for that being the _literal_ toddler sitting next to his sensei’s son. There was baby fat clinging to her cheeks and wrists, and just literally everywhere. “Huh,” he mumbled. _He had thought they had done away with early graduation after the fiasco which was Uchiha Itachi._ Evidently not, because there was _no way that one Haruno Sakura was anything more than three years old._ Kakashi resolved to go and inform the Hokage of the terrible mix up, and then promptly have the child sent back to day care. Or her mother’s bosom. Whichever the little ankle biter preferred. “Well then,” he said, their introductions done and dusted then. “I’m going to go and inform the Hokage there’s been a mix-up what with a toddler in the academy, and I’ll see you boys and whoever’s your real third teammate bright and early tomorrow at six – oh, and don’t forget to not eat breakfast! Unless you _want_ to throw up that is…”

There was a blur of movement, and then Naruto was holding a hissing and spitting toddler who was emitting a palpable killing intent. Kakashi’s eyebrows rose then. _Not bad for an itty bitty baby_. “I’m not a toddler, you bastard!” Little Haruno Sakura hissed, straining and struggling to try and launch herself at him, evidently enraged at being called out for her real age or something. _There was no way she was twelve. No way. It was impossible, and Kakashi didn’t quite know who she was hoping to fool with the entire act._ The biggest surprise was that the records themselves were wrong – something Kakashi intended to have fixed as soon as possible. “Let me at him, Naruto!”

“Neh, calm down, Sakura!” Naruto wailed, still just about managing to keep a hold of his dear friend. “He’s meant to be a jonin-sensei.”

Haruno Sakura puffed out her cheeks. _It was adorable._ “It doesn’t mean I _can’t_ stab him in the ankle,” she muttered, confirming Kakashi’s suspicions that she was indeed a little ankle biter. He couldn’t wait to have her off the team and have his ankles safe and secure once more. _Oh, the trauma of babysitting toddlers._ The ankles were always in the first line of fire, and one couldn’t move too much with children milling about the place because toddlers and small children were often _delicate,_ and oh so sensitive to chakra.

Wisely, he vanished away – only to learn from the chunin instructor at the academy that one undersized Haruno Sakura was indeed twelve years old, but with a suspected bloodline which either altered her appearance or made her grow very slowly indeed. _The Haruno Family hadn’t been approached though, what with how much of a seemingly unimportant and useless bloodline it would be…_ Though Kakashi mulled over whether the small golden-haired girl would be any good at infiltration thanks to that, but she was far too distinctive with that _golden_ hair which practically shone in the sunlight and the general uniqueness of her features. _She had pointed ears, for crying out loud, along with a sort of luminescence about her which slightly unnerved him if he were entirely honest._ Hence it being a rather useless bloodline limit, if that was what it was. Not to mention she was ostracised for it, which was how her friendship with Naruto had come about – and probably ensured how the Haruno Family weren’t bothered by the Council, what with the Hokage being infinitely pleased at how Naruto was being sheltered and accepted by a civilian family _who had roots in the neutral Land of Iron_. Kakashi had been part of the investigative force that the Hokage had put together for that. _What with the loyalty of the ‘jinchuriki’ at stake…_

“Huh,” Kakashi mumbled, rocking back on his heels as he debated on how late to be the next morning. _He wondered what their faces would be like when he strolled up hours late._ A smirk bloomed to life on his face. “You learn something new every day, huh?”

* * *

“Yo!”

Sakura launched herself to her feet, and if she could have spit fire, she would have at the sight of their _very_ exceedingly late jonin-sensei standing there with a lazy smile upon his masked lips.

“You’re late!” she and Naruto yelled at the same time, indignant anger scrawled all over her face as she stared at the man who had called her a toddler the day before. _She utterly despised being called a toddler because she wasn’t one – truly._ Seasons had passed, everyone in her class had grown up, and she hadn’t. Ergo her small _toddler-ish_ body was a very sore spot indeed. She hated feeling like an outcast – _different_ from her peers in some inexplicable, unexplainable way. She was already twelve, and hopefully about to become a genin and officially an _adult_ no matter the fact she looked like a four or five-year-old at best.

“Sorry about that – a black cat crossed my path, so I had to take the long way around!” Kakashi said, and Sakura felt her tapered ears twitch. _Truly her ears were different in the fact they could actually do that much._

_Freak,_ a voice reminiscent of Ami’s echoed in her ears, and Sakura set her face into as blank of an expression as she could. One Hatake Kakashi was most definitely attempting to rile them up – and Sakura knew it was working so very well with her volatile temper and the sore spots she had which the jonin knew how to poke at in order to inflict maximum damage. _And rage._

Letting out a breath, she ignored Naruto’s cry of ‘Liar’, focusing on the task before her instead, and when two bells were revealed, she looked over at her _bestest_ friend and nodded in agreement.

She found herself tied to a stump a short while later, muttering under her breath every method of decimating one Hatake Kakashi that she knew. Naruto fed her some of his rice, and surprisingly enough, Sasuke did too – claiming that she would be even more of a burden than she already was if she were hungry as well as short. Sakura made a note to stab his ankles. _Multiple times._ She had long since accepted the fact that she wouldn’t be able to access anything else as easily on her enemies.

They passed Kakashi’s Bell Test.

* * *

And so, one child-sized Haruno Sakura joined Team Seven, and the seasons flew past and changed. A teammate left. The Third Hokage died. She became the disciple of the Fifth Hokage. Her best friend left. Sakura made new ones, though she never quite managed to make one who was just as special as Naruto. Nobody could replace him. Least of all because they could never seem to figure out how they were supposed to treat her. She looked like a child still, barely reaching their hips, and Sakura rather doubted she would ever manage to reach such a height.

She was still below hip height when the war came, and Sakura didn’t think she could ever forget the blood and death swept up in its wake. Ever since she had stood before the graves of Haku and Zabuza she had known that shinobi were no heroes like her father. They were murderers and mercenaries, and her hands were coated in blood by that point.

Haruno Sakura didn’t know whether she wanted to meet her father anymore. He was meant to be kind and strong – someone who helped the weak. She knew he could never be proud of what she had become. _And that would still probably apply even if he wasn’t as kind and gallant as the one in her mother’s tales was._

She watched as Naruto met his father and spoke with him, an old familiar jealousy burning in her tiny belly as she watched her best friend _be accepted_ by everyone and anyone. People stared at her ears funnily still. _She didn’t belong._ She was still shorter than everyone’s hips.

* * *

She was seventeen years old, still looking like a young child, when she arrived back in Konoha and received the news. _Her mother was in hospital._ Naruto had been mobbed by well-wishers and hero-worshippers at the gates, and Sakura had slipped away. Barely any of them knew what ‘Haruno Sakura, Hero of the Fourth Great Shinobi War’ looked like.

Sakura had seen it in their eyes the few times people had asked after her and subsequently been introduced to her. There was disbelief in their eyes, followed by that lingering expectation which she despised. They expected something _more_ than her. Everyone had in the end, except, perhaps, Naruto. Tsunade had expected her to become a better healer than she currently was. _She had excelled at shedding blood of her foes though_. Konoha expected her to be _older_ or at least _look_ older than she currently did. _The baby fat was still so very strong with her._

And now her mother was lying on a hospital bed, looking terribly ill. _Like the life was fading from her._ A frown pulled at her lips, and she hurried to her mother’s side, concern twisting at her lips. “Mother?” she called softly, jumping up onto the bed with ease. “Mother, what’s the matter?” she asked, peering down at her as she called healing chakra to her hands, the air itself seeming to sing as she did so.

“Leave it, Lothien,” her mother whispered, and Sakura startled at the language used. The one when she wanted no one else, bar Naruto, to understand them. _It was apparently the language of her father’s people._ Sakura had never met another who spoke it. “You cannot save me.”

Tears bit at the corners of her eyes, chakra pulsing beneath her fingertips as she searched for what the problem was. “You don’t know that!” Sakura hissed, so very tired of people assuming she was incapable because she had the body of a little child. “I’m _meant_ to be the disciple of the Fifth Hokage! And she…” Her voice escaped her then, hating the wet trickle down over her cheeks. “I’m no good at anything! It’s like… like I don’t belong here in the first place.”

“In some ways,” her mother said, and Sakura looked up sharply. “You might have just hit the nail on the head.”

“W-What?” Her hands curled in the sheets, having been unable to fix her mother’s problem. _How did one fix a chakra system which was starting to fight the body itself?_

“I never told you _how_ I managed to meet your father, did I?” Mebuki muttered, voice terribly weak in that moment – proof her end was ticking closer and closer. It was a miracle Sakura had managed to get there before her mother’s body failed her. _Maybe if Tsunade had been there…_ But she wasn’t. “I took a wrong turn when I ran from the Land of Iron – it was on the borders, a crevice in the mountain there. I fell down it, and that was where I discovered it – the seal.”

“Like the ones the Uzumaki used to draw?” she asked, heart pounding in her chest because she was finally getting some answers. It was the first time her mother had told her a tale like that one and there was still that intrinsic spark of curiosity within her which was soon set aflame at the unspoken promise of answers to questions which had hounded her for years. _Though it would likely be the only time her mother would ever get to tell her those._ The thought brought more tears to her eyes.

“Similar, yes,” her mother continued, an arm coming to wrap around her tiny shoulders. “And when I activated it by chance, I found myself torn asunder from these lands… I went to _another world_ – that would be the best way to put it…”

Sakura blinked in disbelief, comforted only by the fact that none bar Naruto would be able to understand what they were saying. They were, after all, speaking _Sindarin_ and it was one of the languages both she and Naruto had been taught growing up there. “Another… world?” she echoed hesitantly, musing over whether her mother’s _illness_ would scramble her memories that much. _But a larger part of her accepted it as a fact._ Uzumaki seals had been powerful and rightly feared. _Who knew the limits of what they could achieve?_

“Your father… he was from that world,” her mother said, and Sakura could only blink dumbly. “I know you’ve wanted to meet him for a long time… and I… well, I certainly do not have much time left.”

Sakura hated the fresh tears those words brought to her eyes with relish. “Lady Tsunade will be here soon…” she said, the words an empty promise. Though Sakura knew her mentor better than any, and knew for a fact that she had never encountered a case like what she could tell her mother’s to be.

Haruno Mebuki only smiled guilelessly. “She will, dear,” she murmured, holding her close. “But while we wait, let me tell you how to find your father…”

Sakura sniffled, chest aching at those words. _They were both so great at faking their ‘brave faces’._ Idly, she wondered if any had seen through them. She doubted it, because her mother was the best, and she had learnt from her.

* * *

“Neh, Sakura…” Naruto broke the silence which had fallen as they sat outside the room, on a little bench, neither of them looking towards where their mother’s _cold, lifeless_ body lay. She could hardly believe that a matter of hours ago she had been looking _forwards_ to returning to Konoha.

“What?” she asked, voice hoarse from the crying she had done upon the last breath on her mother’s lips.

“You still want to find him, don’t you?” he questioned, voice perilously soft, but Sakura could pinpoint the throaty sound which had accompanied his words upon losing Jiraiya. _She hadn’t particularly liked the man, but admitted he hadn’t deserved to die – if only to spare Naruto the pain of losing someone precious._ “Your father…”

“Mh.” Sakura nodded, the embers of her childhood wish to find her father roaring to life once more, becoming a raging little inferno within her chest. She wanted to find the _elf_ who had contributed to half of her genetic material. “I do,” she murmured, still feeling so terribly numb. It hadn’t sunk in. _Her mother was dead._

She hated Uchiha Madara. She didn’t care if Naruto had acknowledged him and seemingly forgiven his actions. If he had never implemented his plan, then her mother’s changed chakra system and body would never have been badly affected. Her mother would have been still alive if not for that. Sakura hated the fact that she hadn’t fought harder… _Maybe if she’d known what would happen if Madara’s plan had gone through – even if they reversed its effects afterwards…_ The thought was a bitter one.

Haruno Sakura had never been good enough. She had always been so very different. _A freak._ Her teeth ground together then. _She finally knew why that was so._ Her father was a being from a different world. One who wasn’t even human. Though her mother hadn’t gotten around to explaining how exactly they differed from humans – elves, that was, because evidently, they were close enough to produce fertile children together. _There hadn’t been time for that explanation._ Sakura didn’t quite know why her mother hadn’t told her sooner.

Those answers could have easily bought her some peace of mind.

But she knew then, and she supposed that was all that mattered. _Along with the fact that one of the few people who had made Konoha worth living in was dead._ “I know where I need to go,” she said, staring at her feet then. _Maybe in that world of her father’s she would fit in better?_ “Will you come with me?”

Naruto smiled at her, his grin bright and merry. “Of course!”

* * *

“You… are applying for a leave?” It was Tsunade who spoke out of the ones gathered in the office.

Sakura shook her head, feeling so very small. _Had she always been so very out of place in the Hokage’s Office?_ Maybe it was because she knew she wasn’t meant to be in that place – that world – which had made her come to terms with it all. _That she didn’t need to fit in that place._ There was another place with others like her.

She wondered if all elves were the same as her – stuck in the form of a child. _But that didn’t mesh with what her mother had told her._ Her father had been taller than her mother, after all. But maybe she didn’t need to worry of that just yet. After all, she could find out _once_ she made it to _Arda._ “No.” Sakura closed her eyes, offering out her forehead protector. “I’ve always wanted to find my father,” she said, tucking a golden lock behind her ear self-consciously. _She had long since developed the habit of ensuring her ears were covered by her hair._ She felt horribly exposed with her ears on display. _They had been what made the other children and adults call her a freak in the first place._ “And before my mother… died… she told me how to find him.”

Kakashi closed his eyes then. “You’re leaving,” he said, voice utterly blank, and Sakura nodded. “For good.”

Sakura stared at the floor, wondering if anyone would try to persuade her to stay. _Though her mind had long since been made up._ She wanted to go somewhere where she would be _normal._ Where she wouldn’t be a _freak._

It was Tsunade’s turn to close her eyes then, part of her seemingly having known what was to come. “Konohagakure thanks you for your service, Haruno Sakura.”

* * *

They stood at the gates, packed and ready for their trip to the birthplace of her mother, the instructions blaring in Sakura’s mind. Her heartbeat like a little drum in her chest, and anticipation curled in her stomach. She was ready.

To venture out and find her father, that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looks like we'll be in Arda sooner than I thought...


	6. the new lands

It took months.

The borders of the Land of Iron were vast, and the mountain was large and filled with many a gaps and crevices from the aging of time and just general erosion. Sakura was mostly grateful for Naruto’s lighting seals which made things much easier to see when they descended into darkness many a times before returning to the surface to camp or venture into town to find an inn in the land of her mother’s birthplace.

Pink hair was also far more common in the Land of Iron compared to Konoha, and Sakura always felt the stinging of loss whenever she spied long pink hair flaring out as a woman moved through the hustle and bustle of the wintery streets. Part of her wondered why she had been granted a floral name which would have better suited to someone with _pink_ hair rather than the golden locks she had inherited.

_Maybe her father would have answers?_ Sakura tilted her head, lifting the lighting seal up a little higher as she ventured further into the cave, chakra sticking her soles to the ground. The light was almost blinding as she pumped her chakra into it, lighting up the area around her, and her sharp eyes scanned the area around them. The floor was clear, and Sakura almost thought the walls were, as she ventured further in, mindful of any sort of wildlife which might’ve made its nest there. She had learnt the hard way that bats were not to be messed with. Though she blamed that entire mess on Naruto’s shoulders, because he’d been the one to foolishly wake them up with a poorly timed rasengan.

But when she rounded the corner, she finally saw it – there on the wall in front of her, was unmistakably a seal. It was a vivid sight, the neat gouges in the rockface tinged an odd dark red. _Like dried blood._ Her hands trembled as she remembered the blood coating her fists after the war. There had been far too much. _Far too many dead bodies too, for all that she had been the pupil of Tsunade._ Her shoulders trembled at the weight of those memories, of those voices crying out ‘ _why couldn’t you save them too?’_

Naruto would have no doubt saved them somehow.

_She was always lesser. Different. A freak._

“NARUTO!” she yelled, voice echoing off the walls. “Naruto, I found it! It’s here!”

“WHAT?” Naruto called.

“I FOUND IT!” she all but screeched, relishing in the brief modicum of silence before the familiar sound of Naruto jumping down – without as much stealth as she was capable of. Sakura had learnt to be very stealthy, what with her undersized body. _And hopefully she would soon be getting some answers about that very problem._

“You really found it?” Familiar blonde locks came into sight, blue eyes gleaming with excitement at the prospect of making their first step into the lands her mother had ventured off into so long ago.

“Yes,” Sakura answered curtly, a mix of jealousy and longing raging about in the pit of her belly. “But the bigger question is how are we meant to activate it?” Her hands pushed at the seal then, prodding it with her fingers, but nothing sprung out at her. “Do you think it’s just a case of pouring enough chakra inside?”

Naruto tilted his head, a gleam to his eye as he took in the sight of the odd, undeniably old seal – he had always been far too interested in them. _A consequence of his Uzumaki blood,_ or so her mother had said once upon a time. _That thought made her heart hurt, and she longed to see her mother again_. But her mother was dead, Naruto had been accepted so readily by the village, and Sakura had been shunned – even unintentionally. She had nothing and nobody there. “With seals, that’s usually the case, but we probably ought to do it together, given what this seal is meant to do…”

Her heart thudded inside her chest, excitement and fear boiling in her veins as she lifted a hand to place it on the seal. _This was it._ A small smile curved at her lips. _She would finally go to the place where she could belong – where she wouldn’t be thought of as a freak._ “Just say—”

A flood of chakra surged into the seal, and Sakura only scowled briefly before she pushed her own chakra inside the odd seal. That was Naruto – ever jumping the word ‘go’. The room hummed then, an odd out of place sound, and Sakura briefly had a thought. _She really hoped there hadn’t been more than one archaic seal in those mountains._ And then the world distorted in a swirl of colours and clashing realities.

Sakura had but a moment to liken it to being flushed down a toilet – not that she had ever experienced such a fate before. It just felt like an apt comparison as she found herself sucked down into the ground, earth vanishing from beneath her feet before the brightness of the sun near instantly blinded her. A yelp escaped her lips, the distinct sensation of thin tree branches whipping at her legs as she fell through the treeline, eyes screwed shut, cloak bustling about her. There was the distinct sensation of colliding with another warm body, and then subsequently the hard ground. Air left her in a huff, and Sakura could only groan weakly as she kept her hood secured to her head with chakra – an old habit by that point in time. “Naru—Hwindion?” she groaned, nearly using the language of the Elemental Nations rather than Sindarin as they had agreed upon for after their arrival in those strange lands they had only heard tales of. Sindarin was slightly easier for Naruto to speak compared to Quenya, though Sakura supposed they’d have to adjust when they met the locals. She wasn’t sure which they’d speak – whether one was more common than the other. “Are you well?”

A hand helped her to her feet, and Sakura muttered an absent ‘thank you’ before she registered the fact Naruto was still at—

Sakura frowned, eyebrows drawing together as she noted the too small feet of the body she had landed on – they were also unclad and just a little too hairy to be Naruto’s feet. “Who are you?” she asked, frowning then, stumbling away as she caught sight of the apparent group of five she had stumbled across. _Naruto wasn’t there._ “Where is Hwindion?”

Four of them were impossibly short, but lacking the subsequent baby fat which still clung to her irrevocably, despite her solid age of seventeen. One of them, a blondish one, gave her a dirty look as they helped the one she had fallen upon back to _his_ feet. They were all male, or so Sakura guessed as she took them all in – one brown-haired with greyish eyes, the one she had fallen on, the other two of the party bearing blonde and brown hair. Well, the smallest of the party that was – for there was another with them. The fifth; a human adult.

He was tall, scraggly-haired, with piercing grey eyes, and Sakura knew if he proved to be unfriendly she would have to resort to ankle stabbing from height alone. Fortunately, given he had helped her to her tiny feet, she thought he was rather nice. Not everyone had bothered to help her when she fell down, after all.

“Greetings, child,” the adult said then, and Sakura blinked, relief seeping through her at the sound of Sindarin – though not quite exactly the same dialect as the one her mother had taught her. “To answer your questions, you may call me Strider, as I am known to most folk, but I am afraid I must keep the names of my companions but a secret for now.”

Sakura blinked. That sounded… fair enough. Until she remembered that _Arda_ didn’t have shinobi – at least not a kind which she was familiar with. Though civilians were more than capable of carrying out things in secrecy at times. “Uh, have you seen my companion, Hwindion, at all?” she asked, shuffling from side to side, feeling terribly awkward, more so as she heard the one she had fallen upon ask a question in a language she didn’t recognise in the slightest.

“Can you not speak Westron?” the man – Strider – asked her, and Sakura frowned at the name unfamiliar to her.

“What is Westron?” she shot back, a frown marring her face, concealed under her hood as it was.

Strider frowned then, and Sakura had the vaguest of sensations that she’d asked something terribly wrong or unusual. “Westron is the common tongue here… were you not aware of this before you ventured here?” Grey eyes bore into her then, looking her head to toe, ad if searching for answers Sakura wasn’t quite sure she could provide. _It seemed obvious to some that she wasn’t a local._ Not that she had ever been trying to pass herself off as such.

But then, Sakura supposed that was what she got for charging off through a seal into a new world without having anything more than a snippet of information or, indeed, a plan. Though, really, Naruto had been the one who jumped the gun. She had hardly wanted to be left behind when she was the one meant to be going home. _Always so afraid,_ part of her whispered mockingly.

Sakura shook her head, casting the thought away, biting her lip then, hoping she was somewhere near the right place. That was what she mainly needed to worry over. She wanted to be in the right place of this new world. Near where her father or his people were – where the common tongues were meant to be Sindarin and Quenya. “Mother only taught me and my friend Sindarin and Quenya. If she knew any other tongues, she did not teach us them.”

“I see,” Strider murmured, a pensive expression on his lips as he stared at her. “Well, child who fell from the treetops, I have seen neither hide nor hair of your travelling companion,” he said, and Sakura could only swallow nervously. _Because where in Arda had Naruto vanished off to?_ They were meant to arrive together – the way they always did.

“Oh.” Her shoulders sunk.

“However, I think it would be in your best interests to accompany me and these hobbits to safer grounds,” Strider said, and Sakura felt tension return to her. _Who randomly helped out others when their interests didn’t align?_ “These woods are not safe for someone so young on their own.”

Sakura blinked again, realisation flooding through her. Nobody knew there that she wasn’t the child she appeared to be. It was strange. _But then again, nobody expected a child to be capable of slitting a man’s throat in cold blood._ That would play to her advantage. Especially if, contrary to what appearance suggested, they weren’t a good group. Though, then again, people didn’t tend to conceal their intentions as much when the victim they had set their sights on appeared to be nothing more than a child.

She had encountered, and helped her fellow shinobi, on missions where appearing like a child was nothing more than a benefit to help wrangle up some nasty folks. Her mother hadn’t approved, but then again, her mother was now dead.

No matter how many times she reminded herself of that fact, the grief and numbness she felt hadn’t subsided in the slightest. She wondered if that was because of her elven heritage. She knew barely a thing about her father’s people. One who she was meant to number of. Teeth sunk into her lip then, nervousness and dread building up in her stomach. She had gone there to find a place to belong – a place where she wouldn’t be stared down at or thought lesser because of her appearance. _And the baby fat which clung to her still, despite being seventeen._

“Are you fine with this?” Strider asked, crouching down to be on level with her all of a sudden. “I will not force you to come with us, if you don’t wish to…” He held out a hand then, and Sakura could only stare at it – and the many callouses upon it. A mark of a warrior. A fighter. Perhaps, _like a samurai…_ The thought came to her then, along with the principles of bushido. Something her mother had told her of times before. _Her heart pulsed and ached at the thought, because there was a gaping hole in her life – in her heart._ Sakura didn’t think it would ever heal. Though she couldn’t deny part of her was so grateful to have escaped the cloying airs and memories the Land of Iron had brought to her.

She didn’t think she wanted to go back – back to the eyes which always demanded more; back to the eyes which thought her unworthy because she was less than half the height of an adult. She hoped the eyes of Arda – the eyes of the elves – would be nicer than the ones she had forever left behind.

“Mm.” Sakura nodded, placing her hand in his. She could certainly play the part of a clueless child separated from her travelling companion for a short while. Part of her prayed that Naruto wouldn’t come in and bust her act. She was a shinobi through and through, and rather wanted to scout out the territory before she even entertained the idea of confronting her father with a last ditch attempt at parenthood. Though she was hardly a child who needed to be taken care of, no matter what her body suggested. “Where are you—I mean, _we_ going?” she asked then, falling in step as best she could. Though Strider was seemingly kind enough to slow down his stride for her. The _hobbits_ – whatever those were – seemed to be grateful for the slowed pace. Sakura supposed that ought to be expected, what with their legs only appearing to be slightly longer than her own.

“We are headed to Imladris,” Strider informed her, and Sakura nodded, even though she had no idea what that place was. But it was named in that variant of the language she knew and had been taught. “Child—It would appear I have been quite remiss with my manners,” he said then, and Sakura glanced up at him, chakra sticking her hood in place leaving there no chance for her ears to be shown. _Humans had only ever thought them strange – and wasn’t that an odd realisation; that she was thinking of everyone and anyone she had ever met as ‘human’ now, because she certainly wasn’t…_ “Could I ask for your name, little one?”

Sakura blinked at the question. “Oh,” she said, mulling over the decision of whether or not to give her name them. _She couldn’t see any harm in it._ “My name is Lothien. Nice to meet you, Strider!”

He smiled then, the expression changing his face into something far more pleasant than the grimy traveller he had first appeared to be. “Well met, Lothien.”

Sakura tilted her head, staring up at the only newfound travelling companion she could speak with, given the _hobbits_ only seemed to be able to speak that Westron Strider had mentioned before. They seemed nice – that was Sakura’s initial opinion, and it didn’t change even as the hours passed in their company. One who Strider had introduced to her as ‘Pippin’ had shared one of his apples with her. It hadn’t been poisoned, and had actually been rather tasty. That had cemented her opinion of the oddly childish-yet-not-children-despite-being-so-small folk as being a decent sort. Given she was a shinobi, someone whose trade was blood, death, and war, Sakura supposed it was high praise indeed.

Strider, she found, alternated between speaking with her, teaching a few sparse words of Westron, and speaking with the _hobbits._ It was fairly simple, if uneventful, and it wasn’t particularly hard to keep up the childish act she tried to put on – whether it be by skipping occasionally, or humming under her breath until Strider cautioned her and apologetically informed her that some manner of stealth was required on their venture. That in itself was fine with her. She was a shinobi. Stealth came with that job description. Though she had given in her forehead protector, and relinquished the claim Konoha had to her.

The first step on her path to finding her father. Sakura wasn’t too sure how many steps were left in her adventure.

She only hoped there weren’t too many.

_And that her father didn’t think her strange or unordinary._

_And that he accepted her, unlike the Elemental Nations._

* * *

Aragorn wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the child who had quite literally fallen from the treetops. He assumed she must have been up there for quite some time – perhaps seeking high ground from which to search for her missing travelling companion. One utterly irresponsible _Hwindion_ who had somehow lost a child in the forests leading to Rivendell.

Then again, the Nine were out there, hunting them through those very forests themselves – the reason why he had agreed to take the child with them, if only to get the little one to the safety of Imladris. Servants of the Enemy, Aragorn knew all too well, would only delight in killing an innocent child. So it was possible that this Hwindion and the child had fallen prey to one of those terrible shades… _and that Hwindion had bought time for the little one to escape…_

He frowned, casting the dark thought to one side. It was better to cling to the hope, no matter how terrible it was, that this Hwindion was merely irresponsible. As with everything though, time would tell.

Aragorn only hoped he would be able to make it to Imladris unmolested, with four hobbits, and a little girl in tow now. _Possibly this Hwindion too, should he miraculously make an appearance._ But that, he mused, was likely just a wishful thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel as though I should point this out now - if only because a few people have been commenting on how Konoha wouldn't let Naruto go, given his jinchuuriki status:
> 
> \- No one beyond Naruto and Sakura are aware she's from a different world. It's literally a family secret, what with Naruto having all but been adopted by Sakura and (RIP) Mebuki, so as far as Tsunade and Kakashi are aware, Sakura's venturing off to some far off land to find folk with pointy ears.
> 
> \- Naruto didn't hand his forehead protector in - I would've written that in, if he had, but again Konoha wouldn't have let him.
> 
> \- Naruto's dream is to become Hokage. You really think they didn't give him gentle persuasion regarding that to get him to return after the 'mission' to find Sakura's family (because that's what they're basically classing it as)?
> 
> \- There's a choice between letting their human weapon help his best-friend-slash-sibling-in-all-but-name find her family and making the both of them happy, and denying Naruto the chance to help Sakura find her home, and thereby incurring some resentment from said human weapon. (Not to mention Naruto has basically shown to be very powerful, meaning, could they really stop him from going if he got it in his mind to go off with his friend, thereby losing Konoha some face.)
> 
> So, I think that reasoning for allowing their jinchuuriki to venture off is fairly decent, even if it's not entirely airtight. I think it's better than the premises of 'let's banish our human weapon for injuring or killing Uchiha Sasuke after he defected' at the very least.


	7. the darkness of night

Skipping along with the company of five, all the while hoping Naruto would turn up magically from the trees or the treetops, was a rather easy feat compared to surviving a great war of all nations. Truly, it was pathetically easy, though slightly less than she had imagined. Pretending to be a child so much more innocent and naïve than she really was… It didn’t come as easily to her as she thought it would, and there were moments were she made a slight faux pas and only realised such a thing after Strider stared at her strangely for a few moments, grey eyes holding a significant weight to them as he did so.

She had been very careful so as to not mention the war she had not only survived but fought in. Somehow she didn’t think Strider would take well to the fact that she had legitimately stabbed people until they bled to death. More so because she looked barely out of her toddler years. So mentioning her homeland was rather hard indeed – what with the fact that despite being seventeen she looked five or possibly six years old at best – and she had been a shinobi, a glorified mercenary since she had been twelve and looking like a toddler.

“How much longer is it?” Sakura asked, a petulant whine to her voice which she had been perfecting since her arrival there in that world with different stars – those of which she loved to gaze at when night fell and they made camp. She always had to ensure she closed her eyes though, rather than the odd waking-sleep she could sometimes drift into – the latter of which was becoming more and more common as time had gone by. “My feet hurt,” she added, the idea coming to her on the spot, the whine still very prominent in her voice. Sakura barely resisted the urge to smile at how in-character she sounded right then and there. “Are we nearly there, Mister Strider?” she asked, tilting her head then.

“Perhaps you cannot see from such a height,” Strider murmured, and Sakura blinked, barely resisting the urge to squirm from the grasp which lifted her up, propping her up so her head was in line with his shoulders. “You see that outcrop of what looks like rocks up ahead?” She shifted, highly uncomfortable in his grip, but willing to bear with it. _She had to seem like a child,_ she repeated over and over in her head like a mantra. “That is where we will make camp tonight. Its name is Weathertop in the common tongue,” he said, smiling somewhat sombrely then. “Once, long ago, it was a great watchtower of my people… but now it is but a ruin,” he murmured.

Sakura patted him on the shoulder as comfortingly as she could make it. Consoling people wasn’t something she was particularly brilliant at. It wasn’t her _thing._ Ino or even Hinata had been better at such things in comparison to her. Though she definitely outstripped them when it came to the act of injuring and maiming others. Given her small size, she had learnt how to be vicious and deadly in spite of it all.

“Thank you, Lothien,” he said, smiling at her then, and Sakura only buried her face in his shoulder to hide herself from that warm gaze—only to pull back seconds later, nose wrinkling at the scent of his shirt and cloak. It was hardly surprising, given how long they had apparently been travelling for, but part of her couldn’t resist turning to the man.

“You smell,” she grumbled quietly, sounding ever the child she was trying to be, nose wrinkling once more as she positioned her head more appropriately to avoid the worst of the stench which probably clung to her by that point as well, given her lack of recent baths. Certainly, she had smelt worse, particularly in the middle of the medical tent. _More so when there was a gut wound involved._ Those were horrible and above all, difficult to treat. But still, it hardly meant that she _liked_ being around unpleasant smells. She doubted anyone would.

Strider laughed, speaking something to the hobbits in Westron then, earning a round of laughs from all but the suspicious brown-eyed one with blondish hair. Sakura thought his name was Sam, and she wasn’t sure whether he was more suspicious of her or Strider. _Good instincts if it were the former, or maybe he was just paranoid in spite of not being a shinobi who had lived through war._ Sakura couldn’t really ask him to find out, and she didn’t particularly want Strider to have to translate everything. To quote Shikamaru, it would be _troublesome._ A smile pulled at her lips at the scant few memories she had of the Rookie Nine as they had so been dubbed. She hadn’t been particularly close with them, but then again she hadn’t been wholly distant with them. They just didn’t really seem to know how to treat her – what with her useless _bloodline,_ as they had so dubbed it.

Sakura barely resisted the sudden urge to laugh at the thought she actually was apparently a completely different _species_ or something. That was more to sniff at than a bloodline which merely made clans different from the other. Her fingers curled in Strider’s cloak, green eyes surveying the place they were meant to make camp as they drew closer and closer. “No fire tonight,” she said, part of her feeling slightly disappointed at that – given the last place had been somewhere where their mysterious pursuers wouldn’t have been able to spot a fire for miles, unlike this _Weathertop._

“I’m afraid not,” Strider replied, looking at her oddly once more. “You seem to be quite used to travelling… and being unable to start a fire…” he trailed off, looking pensive then, and Sakura couldn’t quite bring herself to tell him that she had lots and lots of experience of being pursued by hostiles though similarly hostile territory. She knew how to take ruthless advantage of her size – more so when the enemy didn’t have access to fire techniques with which to burn the underbrush out of the way. _Though they had probably been hoping to burn her too with such techniques_. She didn’t particularly want to make it obvious, her previous experiences that was, what with her seeming like a little baby. She was meant to be an innocent little child, and so Strider would see an innocent little child. There was no other option.

“And?” she asked then, tilting her head and blinking up at him owlishly, making sure to keep her hood glued to her head as her travelling companion stared down at her, curiosity and worry drawn on his oddly weathered face.

Strider smiled then, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Nothing you need to worry about, Lothien,” he murmured then, and Sakura could only smile in response – because if he could say that, then she was doing a good job of appearing like the age she looked.

Sakura hummed, nodding then, silence falling between them for a few more moments before Sakura decided to act like a petulant child once more. “So, are we nearly there yet?” she asked, smiling winningly up at her pretend new guardian of sorts. _She wasn’t actually a child, so it wasn’t like she really needed Strider._ She was merely going along with him – if only to get to the nearest elvish settlement without getting herself lost in the forest for a few years. _Knowing her luck that likely would have happened if she hadn’t quite literally fallen on Strider and co._

“Patience, Lothien,” Strider said with an indulging smile.

* * *

It was night-time when everything went waysides.

Hobbits had most definitely led cushy, unthreatened lifestyles – to be so carefree with lighting a fire upon an exposed hillside, revealing their location for their pursuers to see. _That fact had made her question their intelligence and how very pleasant their lives must have been up until that moment._ Part of her only wondered if Naruto could see. She wasn’t entirely sure where he had gotten to. Sakura hoped he was close by – hoped he might find her then, in her _father’s_ world which she had fallen into without as much preparation as she would have liked. There were lots of things she didn’t like right then and there. She especially didn’t like the chilling feel she had even after the fire had been almost put out.

Strider had said they might as well keep it going after the first shrill screech had resounded through the air so very close to their location. _They had been given away_. Fire was a good weapon against what was coming, according to him, though apparently she was to stay close to the fire along with the rest of them.

“I can protect myself well enough,” she said in argument, eyes narrowing as they scanned the horizon before her. Blades were something she had plenty of in no small supply – though she hadn’t shown Strider the many small blades attached to her belt. The same ones which her father had long ago commissioned, according to her mother. She was certain she’d be able to ask him once she found him.

Her small blade gleamed in the moonlight, looking almost golden despite the silvery light, the rayed sun marking on the blade the only blemish. It, and the many matching ones she had, had seen her safely through many battles. She was rather counting on them to do the same then and there.

She felt them first, before she saw them. There was an aura about them – one which radiated despair, and _abandon all hope ye who enter here_ vibes. Though Sakura had, by that point, faced Uchiha Madara himself – the irritating bastard who hadn’t take her seriously, nor tried as hard to kill her compared to her teammates, because she was a _child_ in his eyes – along with punching one Ootsutsuki Kaguya – who had outright ignored her from the start – right on the noggin. She had gotten through both of those situations previous with nothing but a scratch. Some cloaked figures which radiated despair and gloom wouldn’t affect her so. Though the hobbits definitely hadn’t faced Uchiha Madara or Ootsutsuki Kaguya, nor felt both of their very impressive killing intents, and had ultimately led rather leisurely lives, meaning they were very much affected by the doom and gloom being output by the shadowy figures.

Strider moved first, warding them back with fire – a makeshift torch made of scraps of spare cloth wrapped around a stick – which was alarmingly effective as a deterrent. Sakura wondered if they were highly flammable or something, though she didn’t have long to wonder. The maths was relatively simple given there were nine of _them_ and one of Strider. Sakura rolled her eyes at the hopeful thought Strider had – that she might be able to stay out of the battle. That was a load of hogwash, or so Sakura decided as three of the figures advanced towards where she and Pippin and _Merry_ stood.

Pippin mumbled something in Westron, his legs shaking, and Sakura could only feel relief when Merry grabbed him and hurried the both of them away. Two broke off, pursing them on what she felt was going to be a _merry_ chase around the ruins of Weathertop, and she was left to face one – and that was something she could manage just fine.

Chakra surged in her feet, some instinct in her automatically ensuring she was imbuing her blade with her chakra, eyes narrowing at the slight glow which lit the blade. _Well, that had never happened before,_ or so Sakura mused as she dove for the ankles of the shadowy figure who’d dared to think her _easy_ prey. A smile cracked at her lips at the screech of pain the figure let out as her blade bit into something oddly tangible yet invisible to the naked eye. She darted around, scuttling up the rock, hood always in place as she nimbly avoided strike after strike.

Evasion and avoidance had both been drilled into her firmly by that point, and Sakura considered herself practically a master at both, given her small size which only lent its aid there. She was swift on her feet, her reactions trained to be as good as they could, her brain fairly used to figuring out how to best an enemy set before her, and this was just that. Only her strikes to the ankles hadn’t brought anything else still invisible yet more tangible down to an easily stab-able height. That was usually what happened, and Sakura could only wonder why such a thing wasn’t working.

Clearly the creature felt pain, if the screeches it let out whenever her chakra-lined blade made contact with were any indicator. But the pain nor the injuries she inflicted weren’t injuring it in the slightest. Her eyebrows drew together, a scowl marring her face as she tried to figure out how she was meant to bring the thing down. Though she could probably outlast it until morning – but she didn’t have as much faith in the hobbits to do the same. After travelling with them for a few days, while they might have been terrible at hiding from pursuers and just in combat in generally, it didn’t mean she wanted them to die.

The strange shade-like creature had to have a weakness. Sakura didn’t know enough about what type of enemy it was, and Strider was just a bit to far away to shout questions to and have them answered. _Though given he hadn’t killed the creatures when he clearly knew more about them…_ Sakura bit her lip. “No choice then,” she mumbled, readying herself for the exertion which was about to follow. _After all, the creature had to have a weak point – and it seemed to be tangible enough to stab with her chakra-infused knife, meaning all she had to do was stab and stab until she found said weak point._ A grin pulled at her lips. One which was all teeth. One which every enemy she had ever faced in the Elemental Nations knew to fear.

Screeches of pain were almost music to her ears as she worked her way up the shade’s body, stabbing as many times as she could manage before ducking or deflecting the blade which tried to slice at her. Time became something relatively unimportant, her attention focused on the heat of the battle – which was more her trying to figure out how to kill the damned thing. Frustration ate and ate at her—

Her blade hit something more tangible and hard than the shady body or the cloak it wore, eyes widening in delight at the sound of metal ringing out on metal. The creature screeched, moving its hand away defensively. _A mistake._ “So that’s your weakness,” she murmured, wondering what metal was on their hand. _It hadn’t felt like armour-reinforced gloves… too small for that…_ “But I suppose that doesn’t matter,” she said, grinning as she rolled under the blade which swung at her with a screech, green eyes fixed like lasers on her prize – the invisible metal armament on their hand.

Chakra sung then, and Sakura only grinned and grinned as her beloved knife sliced through the metal like butter. A screech rang out through the air then, louder than the previous combined, and she only had a moment to mentally cursed as some sort of energy exploded outwards, catapulting her backwards with the force of one of Tsunade’s punches. Her back hit a rock of some description, air forced out of her lungs with a loud oof, her head cracking back into that same rock. Through some miracle, she didn’t bite her tongue, but she hurt either way.

She felt oddly cold then, like she had stuck her hands in icy water, the odd feeling spreading throughout her body. “Oww,” she groaned, knowing it just had to be her luck that the strange shade had come with a self-destruct sequence upon the termination of its life.

Wincing, she clawed herself back to her feet, blinking as a shadow fell over her cold, oddly sluggish self. Looking up, her blood ran even colder than it already felt, feet moving as though they were caught in treacle as she caught sight of the black-robed shade standing before her, while the tattered cloth of its companion lay a matter of metres away. Her teeth ground together, mind screaming at her body _to move._ She hadn’t even met her father or found out any information about elves— _as if she was going to die right then and there!_

Sword moved—and a familiar, bright blue orb appeared then, as if emerging from the shadows themselves. It’s freehand moved – one Sakura knew to have whatever metal tied it to life, or whatever it did – and a burst of laughter escaped her then. _He had always made things look easy, whether by skill or that ungodly luck of his_. Blonde hair fluttered into view, familiar whiskered cheeks of a familiar face twisted in rage appearing then, and Sakura felt herself relax for but a split second before the second creature exploded so similarly to the first, sending her flying back once more into yet another rocky, hard surface. “Dammit, Hwindion,” she muttered, slipping in and out of Sindarin, as what felt like yet another barrel of icy cold water was throwing over her and the world swayed as though she were aboard a ship. “Could of warned…” she slurred, trailing off, head feeling as though it were made of cotton candy as an owl hooted somewhere off in the distance.

And then she knew no more.

* * *

Aragorn silently cursed to himself as he fended off the last of the Nine who lingered there still. Dimly he had heard Frodo’s cry of pain in the midst of his battle, and he prayed to the Valar that all of his travelling companions – all of whom he had grown rather fond of in their time together, short as it might have been – were all whole and hale as the Nine turned tail and fled. _He hadn’t thought it would be so easy, but then again, one of the Nine had been screeching in pain._ There was no other sound that could have been. His eyes narrowed, and he turned then, even as he caught sound of a number of footsteps bringing his companions back towards him.

“Strider! Mister Strider!” Sam cried, and Aragorn turned to him then, before he caught sight of the two bodies. One was entirely unfamiliar – a blonde man, _no,_ he corrected himself, a blonde boy who could barely be out of boyhood – and the other small form was entirely too familiar for comfort.

“Bring Frodo to me,” he ordered then, hurrying over to the small child he had rather enjoyed talking with, even if she spoke in a different dialect of Sindarin to the one he was so used to. “Lothien!” he called, falling to his knees then, eyes narrowing even further as he felt how very cold her skin was. A quick examination of the blonde boy yielded slightly less severe, though the same result. His mind hardly needed long to figure out what had happened. “Black breath,” he muttered to himself, making a note that he would sorely need to find some athelas. _Lothien was far too young to have been exposed to that poisonous weapon of the Nine._

Moonlight came out from behind the clouds then, the light glinting off something buried within the cloak which could only belong to one of the Nine. _She and the blonde boy…_ His eyes widened as he caught sight of the second cloak and sword.

“You unhoused them,” he murmured, shock, awe, and relief seeping through him then. _There would be only seven to worry about for the time being, though the cost for doing as such was high._ Commotion erupted a short while away, the three conscious hobbits working on carrying their friend and ring-bearer over, even as he stumbled over to where the two cloaks were, wondering if he ought to burn them when he caught sight of it.

Two halves of an all too familiar shape, one which had an oddly heavy sensation weighing in his gut as his eyes darted over to the second cloak and pile to find a pile of finely ground metal.

A ring.

Two rings.

_Destroyed._

“You didn’t simply unhouse them,” he said dumbly, wondering what exactly was going on and what sort of bizarre fantasy he might have been caught up in. The Nine weren’t meant to be slain so easily. Indeed, there was a prophecy set upon the Witch-King in regards to his slaying… But it certainly was no fantasy he was stuck within. Everything was far too vivid and real for that to be true as such. The fire crackled and popped in the background, and numbly, Aragorn pulled himself out of the daze he had fallen prey to and moved the two closer to the warmth they sorely needed with their affliction. “Wraith-Slayers,” he mumbled, pushing the thought away as the hobbits brought him Frodo and a very evil-looking knife.

_Yet another problem to deal with._

Aragorn sighed, focusing his efforts on trying to heal the three new patients he had on his hands, all the while wishing he was already safely in Imladris with his adoptive father there ready to treat all of them.

_It was going to be a very long night._


	8. the golden rider

There was a pounding in her head, a dull throb which wouldn’t go away, even as she lay there, chakra humming beneath her skin. It sought out her illness, or whatever it was which made her feel like she had been hit with a sledgehammer. _Or one of Tsunade’s intense training sessions, back when she hadn’t quite been quick enough to dodge the literal meteorites thrown her way._ Her chakra moved as it had before, surging through her body, intent on healing her. _But the coldness was biting and so very consuming…_ Her eyes cracked open then, barely able to see the sky above her. It was dark, meaning she hadn’t been out for very long, or she had been out for a _long_ time. Sakura hoped it was the former.

“Lothien!”

Sakura groaned, blinking so very slowly and weakly, coldness seeping through her veins as she found herself lifted. Dimly, she tried to support herself, failing epically as she slumped back into the older man.

“Drink,” Strider commanded in a tone that brokered no argument. Not that she could have given any as she felt and tasted what felt like crushed berries and water run over her tongue and down her throat, alleviating the pain and the onset of hunger she could just about feel – proving that she must have been out for a matter of hours. The sun’s rise couldn’t be too far off, and Sakura hoped it would provide her with some much needed warmth to push away what felt like ice in her veins.

Pippin spoke then, in that unfamiliar tongue which Sakura sorely wished she knew. She wondered why her mother hadn’t known it, if it was so very common. _But then again, her mother had lived with the elves, so maybe they didn’t use this ‘Westron’._ Groaning, she could only watch as Pippin sat down beside her, and Sakura thought he looked worried then. Half of her wanted to pat him on the cheek to somewhat console him as he stared at her, the other half of her knew she didn’t have the strength or the coordination at that moment in time to accomplish such a feet.

Dimly, she tried to move her hands, scowling somewhat as her fingers only twitched a bit, cold and stiff as they felt. Her lips moved, no sound escaping them as was settled into a more upright position, Strider hovering over her like a concerned mother hen. _She missed her own mother._ The stinging sensation of loss hit her then, tears biting at the corners of her eyes as she stared determinedly at the nearest light source in hopes of making them recede somewhat. She hated crying. _Besides, she was there to try and find her father – it was supposed to be a happy occasion._ “Knife?” she mumbled then, scolding herself for not asking about Naruto over her precious knife. One of the set her father had entrusted to her mother. A clue to finding him. Sakura didn’t want to lose even one dagger.

Strider shifted from where he sat beside her, situated between her and Naruto, looking over them both as well as the hobbit she could take a guess at being Frodo. Or at least she thought it was him. It was difficult to tell in the dim lighting, even with the fire flickering merrily beside them. Though even as close as she was to the flickering amber flames she couldn’t really feel the heat. Sakura rather hoped it would change eventually, whether under the ministrations of herself or Strider. “By knife do you mean this?” he asked, lifting a blade in front of her face then.

“Yes,” she mumbled, smiling contentedly at the sight of the oddly goldenish metal and the familiar rayed sun marked upon its blade. “’s it…”

“Were you looking any better, then I would ask you how a blade of the First Age came into your possession,” he said, brushing her golden locks back off her forehead, and Sakura had a minor panic until she felt the familiar thrum of chakra sticking her hood to her head. Her ears couldn’t be on display, if only thanks to a lifetime of sticking something to her head to cover her ears. Years old instincts and habits hadn’t betrayed her, and Sakura relaxed as much as she could, chakra still desperately trying to heal her. “But you should rest for now, Lothien. We will be travelling once more once the sun rises.” Sakura frowned up at him, and Strider thankfully got the message. “Pippin and Merry have volunteered to carry you throughout the day, until you feel well enough to stand on your feet – or until your companion here manages to get back to his own,” he said, glancing at Naruto then. “He was much more mildly affected by the Black Breath compared to you, though oddly enough you were the first to wake between the both of you.”

_She was just that good,_ or so Sakura mused, before her eyes narrowed on Naruto as he lay there. _Because he had Kurama, and probably ought to have been healing quicker… but he wasn’t._ Sakura could only frown and make a note to ask him about it once he woke up.

“Sleep, Lothien,” Strider ordered, wiping at her brow then, and Sakura could only hum in acknowledgement before the bliss of unconsciousness came for her then and swallowed her whole without a whisper of warning.

* * *

It took days for her to heal.

Sakura blamed it on being exposed to two strange, chilling blasts from those cloaked beings, and on her tiny body which had seemingly become a liability once more. Something she had put blood sweat and tears into ensuring she wouldn’t become with her too-small body of hers. Though Naruto was awake and walking by that time – something Sakura was grateful for, if only because he smelt slightly better than either Strider or any of the hobbits. She clung to his back, bemoaning her state in her mind as her eyelids drooped. The tiredness coupled with the lingering chill in her limbs didn’t exactly make things easy.

Strider thought it was due to her being smaller and doubly exposed to its effects that she was worse off than Naruto. Sakura just thought he was irritatingly lucky in some respects. Though he wasn’t lucky in some other respects, given he sometimes made even worse slip ups compared to her own – _and he wasn’t even trying to pretend to be a child, because he didn’t need do thanks to the fact that, unlike her, he didn’t look childish in the slightest._

She wasn’t jealous in the slightest.

“Well Lothien’s mother passed away after we got back from the war,” Naruto said blithely, answering one of the questions Strider had thrown their way, and Sakura barely refrained from pinching her nose in exasperation and strangling her dear idiotic friend. _There was a reason Naruto had been marked down as ‘never to let go on covert operations’ as was being demonstrated._

“War?” Strider’s voice took on that horrified and confused edge she had come to relate with her occasional slipups. “I have heard no mention of _war_ …”

“You would not have,” Sakura chimed in then, tightening her grasp on her dear friend’s neck in warning. “Our home country is very far away from here, so the… squabbles of my mother’s people would not have reached your ears.”

“Is that so?” Strider murmured, still looking mildly perturbed by Naruto’s words. Sakura missed the peaceful quiet of when it had just been her, Strider, and the hobbits. Not that she wasn’t glad to have her dear friend back at her side. He just came, bringing his own share of problems, issues, and loose lips with him. A soft sigh left her lips, and she rested her shin in the crook of his neck, humming quietly as their journey continued.

“Are we nearly there yet?” she asked, ignoring how Naruto tensed, seemingly concerned and somehow oblivious to the fact that she was still trying to pass herself off as a child – not that he had been there to witness her many previous attempts. Then again, Naruto had too often seen her, fists covered in her opponent’s blood as she stood within a crater of her own making. _So maybe that was a reason?_

“We are at least halfway, if not over such a marker through our journey by now, unless more trouble happens to find us,” Strider said, expression turning grim, and his attention drawn away from the fact Naruto had inadvertently revealed. _All according to plan._ Sakura smiled. “What brings you so far from home then? So soon after a disaster too,” Strider questioned, and the smile dropped from her face just as quickly as it had appeared.

“Because Lothien’s father comes from these parts!” Naruto exclaimed blithely, eyes widening moments later as her grasp on him became punishing, hoping that she could get across the message that it was a _personal_ mission of hers with Naruto there to help. Strider didn’t need to know that they were there searching for her _elven_ father. _Nor that he was inadvertently leading her to a place which would hopefully have clues as to her father’s whereabouts._

Strider blinked, evidently having not expected that answer. _But then she doubted anyone would._ Most people didn’t tend to be estranged from one of their parents. _And even then, it was usually because one of them was dead._ “I see,” Strider mumbled, casting a curious glance her way. “Then I apologise,” he said, smiling still. “I would appear to be taking you a little off trail, what with bringing you both to an elven settlement.”

Her eyes narrowed then, wondering _why_ Strider wasn’t even entertaining the mildest of possibilities that she was an _elven_ child. From what he had told her over the last few days, Strider had actually grown up in Imladris despite not being of elven blood. _Had he not met any other children?_ Her stomach turned at the thought of elf children being a not so common occurrence. _After all, she just wanted to be normal, and to properly fit in somewhere… she didn’t think she would be able to do that if she was something ‘rare’._

Naruto tilted his head. “But Lothien’s father is—urk!”

Sakura scowled, shuffling up Naruto’s back as best as she could, hands and arms holding her dear _friend’s_ neck so very tightly. “Hwindion!” she cried, pulling herself up to better meet those bright blue eyes which turned to her, wide and pleading. “Are you alright?” she asked, pleased with how much childish concern she had managed to inject into her voice.

“I think your grip might just be a bit too tight, Lothien,” Strider remarked, and Sakura let her mouth fall open – as if in realisation as she looked back to Naruto and loosened her grip on his throat, eyes all the while promising _murder_ if he didn’t shut up.

Naruto, thankfully, got the message, and the air was filled with blissful silence. _That was, if one discounted the hobbits speaking in Westron and the sounds of nature around them._ At least until Strider informed them worriedly that they would have to head back to the road. The same road which would increase the likelihood of an encounter with one of those black-clad ‘wraiths’ or so Strider had dubbed them. _And she was very much still not in fighting form, nor did she want to be exposed to another one of those cold explosions from said wraiths._ There had been nine – now seven thanks to her and Naruto slaying one each. _Something which Strider still seemed to be stumped over._ Though this ‘Witch King’ who had stabbed poor Frodo hadn’t unfortunately been one of the two they had killed. _And the ‘Witch King’ was apparently the greatest of the wraiths there, one of this ‘Sauron’ fellow’s greatest servants._ Sakura rather wanted to stab it and bring it down, if only because she had grown somewhat fond of the hobbits despite not being able to speak.

Occasionally Strider has acted as a translator between them, making for merry, interesting fireside discussions between them, but they’d always been a bit funny when she subtly asked them _why_ they were travelling with Strider and what mess she seemed to have been dragged into. Eventually Sakura had decided to let sleeping dogs lie. It wasn’t like their ‘adventure’ would bring her father running to them, and that was her own secret ‘adventure’ she was undertaking which she was also very tight lipped about. So she could hardly be irritated by a lack of answers.

They could keep their secrets and she could keep hers.

Or so she thought.

_And then the golden rider appeared._

* * *

A light clippety-clip was that which they heard before the horse and rider came into view. Her hand was clenched around the hilt of her knife, despite the fact it would likely be of no use what with how she was depending on Naruto, limbs and body still wracked with a slight chill which would fade in time, or so Strider had assured her.

And then the rider came into sight and all Sakura could fixate on were those golden locks which were an awfully similar colouring to her own. But then again, there were probably hundreds of different elves with blonde hair. There were no guarantees it was her father, and she tightened her grasp on Naruto abruptly as he went to ask a question.

“Not now!” she hissed, heart beating nervously within her chest as she stared up at the golden rider who was smiling joyously at the entire group. It felt as though there were nervous butterflies flapping about within her stomach, _because what if…_ Sakura shook her head then, watching from the corner of her eye as the elf introduced to them as ‘Lord Glorfindel’ who lived in Imladris – and had apparently come to find them. Not her and Naruto, obviously, but Strider and the hobbits or so it seemed.

Her curiosity with both the adventure of Strider and the hobbits grew, as did the wondering as to the identity of her father. _Because the universe was never so kind as to simply make things easy for her – which meant the elf before her was suspicious._ Though fortunately his attention was soon occupied with Frodo, and Sakura only watched on curiously as a trickle of relief found its way into Frodo’s expression as the elf looked over him, gently touching at the shoulder which had received the nasty wound some days before.

There was movement, Strider saying something she wasn’t really paying attention to as she rested upon Naruto’s back, and then he was off to do something regarding the noble white steed belonging to the golden elf. Though, really, she should have been paying attention, because said golden elf was then making his way over to where the two of them stood. Sakura pressed herself back against Naruto as much as she could, heart thudding frantically at the sight of, at the very least, one of her father’s people. _Or maybe her father himself…_ Though Sakura didn’t know enough to be certain on the matter. _She knew better than to get her hopes up too much, lest she be disappointed in one way or another._

“You are… Hwindion and Lothien, yes?” Glorfindel asked, and Naruto smiled and answered his question merrily. Sakura saw no need to stop him from doing as so – they were only their names, and they already knew the golden elf’s.

“How can we help you?” Sakura questioned warily, wondering why he wasn’t busy focusing on Frodo who probably needed more help – what with him lacking the chakra she was using to help speed along her own recovery.

“Estel mentioned you both were exposed to the Black Breath,” he answered, still smiling down at them pleasantly. _Good gods he was tall._ Sakura abruptly felt like an itty bitty child and _hated it._ “Though he was rather concerned as to Lothien’s recovery,” Glorfindel said, looking at Hwindion then. _Her guardian apparent there._ “Although I could not help Frodo further with his wound, I do not believe the aftereffects of the Black Breath should be beyond my healing skills, minimal as they are.”

Naruto adjusted his hold on her then, bringing her around to his front, and she stared up at him pleadingly, silently trying to beg her dear friend not to pass her over to the elf who made her both uncomfortable and nervous. _Probably because of his colouring, and the possibility…_ Sakura swallowed. _She would be able to scout out and find more information once she reached Imladris._ Until then it was best to lay low. She had already tumbled into that world unprepared. She didn’t want to meet her father unprepared too.

She had to be prepared. _In case he didn’t want her…_

Her silent pleading went unheard in every way, and Naruto only looked between her and Glorfindel, grinned, and then promptly handed her over in the golden elf’s waiting arms. One arm held her in place, free hand going for her head, and Sakura grabbed a hold of her hood and pulled it further over her face, hiding herself then. A hand landed on her shoulder then instead, and a soft sigh escaped her as a trickle of warmth ran down her arm – before spreading everywhere.

Warm and content for the first time in days, Sakura yawned as sleepiness hit her like a rasengan to the gut. Her head flopped just a bit, sliding down to rest against armour, eyelids terribly heavy. “Sorry about that,” she heard Naruto say dimly. “She can be a bit shy in regards to her appearance.”

“One could almost mistake that hood to be a permanent fixture,” Strider said then, earning a laugh from Naruto.

Sakura made a mental note to sock him one later.


	9. the golden knife

Waking up in the arms of a stranger-slash-possible-father-candidate was a strange experience – more so for Sakura who had never ever really gone to sleep in the Elemental Nations in the arms of a strange person who wasn’t a known ally or one she felt comfortable with. The eeriest thing had to be the fact she did in fact feel terribly comfortable in Glorfindel’s presence. Sakura wasn’t entirely sure whether it was something to do with the fact he might be her father, or the fact he was of the same species as her. He was an elf, like her – the first of her kind she had met, even if he was fully grown and that much taller than her. She had nothing to compare it to, though she would hopefully once they had reached Imladris, a settlement of her people. A smile pulled at her lips, part of her feeling giddy at the thought, the other half of her berating the childishness of it and dreading trying to find her father. _If he hadn’t found her already that was,_ or so Sakura mused as Glorfindel carried her along, seemingly content to keep holding her despite the fact she had startled awake. Naruto had made no moves to take her back. _Traitor._

“Do you feel better now?” Glorfindel asked, and Sakura only nodded shyly, hating the fact she was rendered somewhat speechless by the appearance of one of her kin. _It was probably just because of the looming possibility of finding her father that had her feeling so very shy._ Sakura hated the feeling of being small, tiny, and helpless. _But she was playing the part of a sweet, innocent child._ She had to stay in character, and so she nodded vigorously, still keeping her hood pulled over her head as much as she could. Glorfindel looked rather bemused by it.

“Yes,” she answered, stomach doing backflips as she spoke, her voice terribly shaky and soft. Part of her wanted to scream and slap herself, if only to get her emotions in check. _If only to get rid of that nervousness which was building in her gut at the thought of meeting her father._

“No lingering effects?” Strider asked her then, glancing at her, concern just about visible on his face.

“Doubting my skills?” Glorfindel wondered, a bright, teasing smile on his face as Strider shook his head in the negative. “I should hope not…”

“Er, I can carry Lothien now, if you would like a break?” Naruto offered then, unflinchingly polite, undoubtedly feeling awkward at the conversation between the two who had more of a history than them together. He shifted on his feet, looking terribly sheepish as he found himself the sole focus of two sets of eyes.

“You were as much of a victim of the Black Breath as Lothien, Hwindion,” Strider said, a soft smile breaking out on his face then. “Besides, Glorfindel does not mind carrying a child… Lothien is terribly light, after all.”

“Are you sure?” Naruto asked, gaze flickering back and forth between her and her fellow elf, even as Glorfindel made no moves to pass her back over to her ‘guardian’ there and then.

“Elves are very fond of children, Hwindion,” Strider explained, smiling still then, even as Sakura pondered on the meaning behind that statement. _Why were elves so very fond of children?_ Part of her prayed Naruto would ask such a question, but they lacked a telepathic bond with which to do so. Plus Naruto wasn’t seeming to be listening or watching her expression for cues which could give clues – then again, he rarely did as such. Sakura couldn’t be all that surprised. “Lothien will likely be safest with him, and you ought to focus on ensuring your own health… at least until we reach Imladris where you can both rest and recover from this venture.”

“Oh.” Naruto blinked. “Okay…” Sakura gave it a few seconds before she sighed, trying to make herself as comfortable as she could, considering the one carrying her was wearing armour – which wasn’t exactly comfortable to lean against. “But really, I feel fine!”

“Hwindion,” Strider said with a sigh. Sakura debated on patting his shoulder consolingly, but Strider was too far away to reach. “How are you and Lothien related? You both seem awfully young to be wandering about on your own without your guardians…” he trailed off, and Sakura could only roll her eyes as Naruto didn’t bother to question or really notice the sudden topic change. _Really, she worried for her friend sometimes._

“Lothien’s mother pretty much adopted me in all but name,” Naruto said, and Sakura mourned the fact she was nowhere near close enough to chokehold him should he try to let anything slip that he shouldn’t. Situational awareness really wasn’t Naruto’s strongest suit. “My parents died when I was born—”

“You can put me down if I am being a bother,” Sakura said, still half-hiding her face behind her hood and her _tiny, too small_ hands. “I can keep up on foot!”

Glorfindel looked down at her then, eyebrows drawing together at the thought of what had to be her trying to potter along and keep up with them all. “Your legs are very small, and you have only recently recovered. Best for you to stay off your feet, given the pursuit behind us is undoubtedly bearing down upon us,” he murmured, eyes flickering to the road behind them, even as the hobbits were urged onwards. “Besides, it is easier to hold a conversation with you like this,” he remarked, and Sakura stiffened in his arms then. “Tell me, who taught you this particular dialect of Sindarin?”

“Uh…” Sakura blinked, brow furrowing. “My mother?” she said hesitantly, wondering what trap or pitfall she was about to fall into. _This was why she ought to have done more research – not that she could really, what with having no sources of information in the Elemental Nations regarding this strange world of her father’s folk._ “Is there something wrong with my pronunciation?”

“Not that,” Glorfindel murmured, even as Naruto and Strider continued talking on the other side, Strider occasionally saying something to the hobbits in Westron. “North Sindarin,” he said, as if that was meant to mean anything. “You are having some trouble understanding Estel at times, are you not, even though he speaks Sindarin, yes?”

Sakura frowned up at him. “Estel?”

“Ah, that is what many in Imladris call… Strider,” he said after some pause. “But that does not detract from my question – who taught you to speak in an extinct dialect of Sindarin?”

“Ah, so it is _North Sindarin_!” Strider declared, providing some much needed relief from the elf’s confused and somewhat concerned stare. “I had been wondering on the differences,” he said, glancing between her and Hwindion. “It is no wonder Glorfindel here recognised it.”

“Why?” Sakura asked, seizing on the opportunity given to change the conversation and make Glorfindel forget to repeat his question. _And give her time to ponder why in the world the Sindarin their mother had taught them was classed as ‘extinct’._ Her stomach twisted at the thoughts of the possibilities, but Sakura reminded herself there was a wonderful thing called research. Something she would have to complete in Imladris before attempting to find her father.

Strider turned to her, his smile slightly saddened, eyes darting to Glorfindel who gave an almost imperceptible nod. “Glorfindel here once spoke it, for he was once a Lord in the city of Gondolin,” he explained, and Sakura felt her stomach twist again. _Because she recognised the name of that city – the name which had cropped up in her mother’s stories, though she had looked so very sad when she mentioned it by name._ Probably because she was missing _him,_ her father.

He was blonde and he had once lived in Gondolin.

Sakura didn’t like how things were lining up, nor the fact that those two facts couldn’t be a coincidence – _because how did one break the news to their father about their mother’s death and the fact_ —

“Gondolin?” Naruto asked the question she hadn’t been able to think of, caught in her thoughts as she was.

“A great city of the elves in the First Age,” Glorfindel answered, cutting Strider off before he could speak, eyes looking terribly distant then as he stared at the road ahead of them. “A hidden city,” he clarified, and Sakura hummed curiously. _Was that like a city of shinobi then?_

Strider grabbed Naruto by the shoulder then, pulling him to the side somewhat, but Sakura’s sharp ears allowed her to hear the hushed whispers which passed between them. “I would ask that you do not pry to deeply into the matter of Gondolin – when it fell, the city fell _hard,_ and Glorfindel… was witness to it, as well as a victim of the ‘Fall of Gondolin’ as it is titled by scholars,” Strider said, eyes downcast. “He lost his wife, and his unborn child to it…”

Sakura felt her stomach squeeze once more, brow furrowing. _If his wife and child were dead, then obviously he wasn’t her father… but her father had been this ‘Lord of the Golden Flower’ from her mother’s many tales so maybe… maybe there would be another clue right in front of her?_ “You were the Lord of a Household?” she spoke, glancing curiously up at him, wondering if he had been friends with—

“The House of the Golden Flower,” Glorfindel answered succinctly, eyes haunted, and he adjusted his grip on her, even as she went rigid— _because she was in the arms of her father, and he apparently had no idea, because… because he thought she was dead. Why did he think she was dead?_ Sakura scrambled to find some sort of an answer for that in the depths of her big brain, but there wasn’t anything. “We should change the topic of conversation, no?” he murmured, a hand patting at her back then, and dimly she was aware she was shaking somewhat, earning herself some concerned stares. Sakura was only grateful she could probably attribute it to lingering effects of this ‘Black Breath’ rather than shock over the fact that she had somehow found her father, but her father thought her dead. _He thought she had died in the womb, and Sakura—_ Sakura didn’t know how to deal with that. She had gone there thinking, for some reason, that her father knew she and her mother were alive and well.

_What a stupid assumption that had been._ Why had she made it? When had she made it?

“Ah,” Strider spoke, pulling something out from the folds of his cloak then. Sakura took a moment to realise it was one of her knives. Her brow furrowed and she scolded herself quietly for not noticing one of her precious collection of knives given to her mother by her— _oh._ “This is the blade Lothien used to stab one of the Nine. Given it hasn’t perished, I knew it had to be of the First Age,” Strider said merrily, oblivious to the odd stare Glorfindel was giving the small blade. “Perhaps this might change the topic, though if you cannot identify such a blade, then I will ask father once we arrive at our destination…”

There was a hum of amusement which rumbled from the elf’s throat, and Sakura could only blink dumbly, part of her registering that she was in some state of shock _because her father thought she was dead. Dead before she had even lived, and Sakura had the sinking feeling her father had thought this for a long time. Long enough to come to accept this as fact rather than scrambling for an alternative answer and searching for evidence._ “I am afraid it will not,” Glorfindel said, wry amusement in his voice despite the weight which lingered behind his eyes. “This blade was forged in Gondolin at my behest. For my wife,” he murmured, holding her with one hand while the other wrangled the dagger from Strider’s grasp. “Valier rest her soul,” he whispered, staring forlornly at the golden blade. Her stomach twisted again, and Sakura shivered violently even as she reached for _her mother’s blade_ which Glorfindel relinquished to her. “It was one of a set,” he said, pausing as he caught sight of the other small blades strapped to her tiny waist. “Which I see you have.” His hand reached for her head, ruffling her hair and hood together. “May they serve you well, little one.”

“They have,” Sakura heard herself answer distantly.

Glorfindel frowned at her, and Sakura cursed her shocked state, and blamed her apparent loose lips on them as she continued to grapple with the fact that _her father thought she was dead!_ And Sakura didn’t have the first clue of how to tell him that both wife and daughter had survived past when he had thought.

_And yet her mother was now dead._

_How could she get his hopes up and then crush them?_ That would be cruel – too cruel, and Sakura hated being cruel. She couldn’t stomach the thought of being cruel to the father she had idolised and longed to meet for so long. _Besides, he might have wanted either both of them, or neither of them at all…_

The thought terrified her.

* * *

_Strange_.

That was the only word which immediately came to mind as he watched the two human children and pondered on what Estel had told him of the two, which was actually very little indeed, what with how much of a rush they were in to reach the safety of Imladris.

Though there was a meaningful weight to Estel’s stare when he mentioned the blade – mentioned _stabbing_ one of the Nazgûl. A _child_ stabbed one of the Nazgûl. _A child,_ he repeated in his mind, staring down at the small little bundle of clothes and tiny limbs in his arms and wondered what sort of hellish situation could have led to a _child_ summoning the courage to stab one of the Nazgûl, the chief servants of darkness in that day and age. “Where were you when the Nazgûl attacked then?” Glorfindel heard himself asking, staring down at the tiny child who had done what many a grown man and elf had shied away from.

“I was attempting to fend off as many as I could,” Estel said, a note of regret in his voice. “But thankfully Hwindion arrived in time to help…”

The blonde boy with odd facial markings grinned merrily then, and Glorfindel took comfort in the fact that the boy didn’t look too affected by his encounter with the Nazgûl. As for the smaller one in his arms… He frowned, rubbing at her back then, something he hoped was comforting, given how rigid and shaky she had so recently become. Glorfindel couldn’t help but wonder _why._ “Brave little warrior,” he murmured then, frowning still at the fact a _child_ had to face one of the Nazgûl.

“No,” the little girl in his arms muttered, voice slurring somewhat. “’heir killing intent was jus’ pathetic…” she said, settling her head against the plate of his armour then, and he shifted his grip on her once more, wondering all the while what he could do to make her more comfortable, what with the distance they still had to travel. _But part of him was wondering about this ‘killing intent’ and the fact Lothien thought it ‘pathetic’… because wouldn’t that mean she had faced worse? And at such a young age too…_

“If you are tired,” he told her, cradling her small body as best he could even as she yawned and shivered, “then you should sleep.”

A green eye stared up at him, ignorant to the way the colour stirred at age-old memories he loved and hated _because she was gone forever._ “Mm,” Lothien grunted, glancing up at him with an indecipherable look in those green-green eyes of hers which took him back to the time he had lived in a white city. “Maybe,” she mumbled stubbornly.

Glorfindel could only chuckle and walk on, listening to both the conversation of Estel and Hwindion, as well as that of the ring-bearer’s friends. Frodo was resting on his horse, the shard of knife undoubtedly buried in his wound making life all the more difficult for him. _But he would trust in the odd strength the little hobbit seemed to have within to help him hold on until they reached Lord Elrond._

He would be home and safe soon, with hobbits and other guests in tow.

_The sooner the better,_ he could only think as he glanced down at the small body in his arms, feet leading him closer and closer to home with every step he took.


	10. the elven valley

Sakura was drawing complete and utter blanks.

For all that she had been renowned as the ‘brains’ of Team Seven, she felt like a gormless moron the longer she lay placidly in her _father’s_ arms. Really, the words _‘Hello, I’m your daughter’_ shouldn’t have been hard to say. Only her father thought she and her mother dead long before they were. He had seventeen years or thereabouts in which had given him plenty of time to _healthily_ grieve – given he wasn’t a traumatised shinobi who knew no healthy coping mechanisms – and come to that all important acceptance.

_Would he even believe him if she said that? Or would he think it some cruel prank because his wife and unborn child had to be dead?_ Her stomach twisted, and Sakura fiddled with her hood, pulling it further over her head in the hopes that it would give her some answers. It didn’t, but the motions were oddly soothing and comforting to her, likely on account that part of her subconsciously felt safe with her ears covered and hidden from the world. Her mouth popped open, ready to try and figure more things out, test the waters, as some would put it, but then things started happening very quickly and her lips clicked back shut.

The pursuit had caught up, and Sakura was being passed into Strider’s waiting arms, the white horse called Asfaloth had taken off at _her father’s_ urging. And getting used to thinking of Glorfindel as her father was going to take some getting used to. She had never really seen how father and daughter were meant to interact with each other, and she had the mildest of suspicions that her social skills were rather stunted from having only one friend along with almost everyone treating her like a child at one point or another.

_In fact, now that she thought about it, coming here to meet her father had been a terrible idea, and half of her really, really wanted to go back home already._ The other part of her remembered that look in everyone’s eyes back in the Elemental Nations – the look which had doubted her and expected so much more than what she was. She had gone there to find her father, and now she just needed to muster the courage to introduce herself. _To face the possibility of rejection because she was strange and weird._

Sakura could see the waters of the _ford_ ahead of them, the same waters the white horse rode through to get to the other side. Strider barked something at the remainder of the hobbits, and she realised he had to have been instructing them to create a fire moments after those orange flames had taken light. Though Sakura thought that might have been unnecessary – because when they had overtaken them in pursuit of Frodo on the white horse, they had given both she and Naruto the widest berth. Sakura hadn’t quite been able to forget the rush that gave her, the joy that suffused through her at the thought that they _feared_ her. Too many enemies hadn’t feared her so. _But they had learnt,_ or so Sakura mused with a dark smile, even as Strider walked forwards then, leaving the fire behind them to the care of the remaining hobbits, the waters of the river which had suddenly swelled and swept the dark riders away already subsiding, and it was on the banks that Glorfindel waited for them then – Asfaloth having gone ahead and delivered Frodo to wherever he needed to go.

“Come, friends,” Glorfindel spoke then, turning as they all hurried towards the waters and beyond – where food and rest awaited them, both of them things Sakura was very much looking forwards to after the days previous. “I bid you welcome to Imladris…”

* * *

Strider moved forwards first, and Sakura had to pinch and lightly punch Naruto’s arm as she was carried past to get him to stop staring, transfixed at the sight of the admittedly very pretty valley and the elven settlement within its boundaries. Her mode of transportation then snickered lightly at the others’ reactions. Sakura only sighed and let herself be carried further into the elven realm which really had her stomach rolling with anticipation and nerves. The fact that she had _miraculously found her father_ weighed down on her like a nine-tonne brick. “Have you seen another elven realm perchance?” Strider asked her, even as they continued up a neatly lain path, the hobbits plus Naruto following a few steps behind.

“No?” Sakura answered, genuinely confused by his question.

He blinked. “Hm,” he mumbled. “You didn’t seem particularly surprised by the sight, unlike your companion behind us,” Strider said, and Sakura could only shrug as best she could. After all, Naruto wasn’t in the middle of having a crisis about how she was supposed to tell her father that she was alive and that she was in fact his daughter. The sight of an elven realm – a realm of her kinfolk, she realised with the mildest of shudders _because she wasn’t human, no matter how many years she had believed the opposite_ – had seemed somewhat… less awe-inspiring and striking than it probably ought to have been, given the subject of her internal dilemma and panic was walking beside them. There was an odd skip to his step, a weight seeming to have lifted off his shoulders at their entry to what was his home. Sakura supposed the joy of no longer being pursued was the reason for that.

Though that thought did absolutely nothing to quell the raging panic still running amok inside her. _Could it be as simple as pulling down her hood? Making others notice the resemblance between her and her father?_ Mother had always told her she took after him – something she had always looked so very sad about. _Sakura wondered if she’d had siblings, whether they would have taken more after her mother._ But her mother was dead, and it was only her and her father. _Not that he knew about her._ A throbbing in her heart made her wince then, part of her hating the terrible well of fear which was rising up within her to swallow her whole.

Her hands went for her hood, fingers intertwining with the material of the cloak she wore. _Freak._ Ami’s words came back to haunt her then, the same words which had been veiled behind kinder words when she had aged but hadn’t grown, and her hands stilled for but a moment before they reflexively pulled the material down to better cover her face. There was a pit of nervousness building in her stomach at the thought of being outed as an _elven_ child. Whether it was just from the fact that elves were meant to love children, and that Strider hadn’t even seemed to contemplate the idea that she could be an elven child. Something about it… _It just made some complete utterly irrational fear rise up and make her freeze whenever she tried to contemplate seriously lowering her hood._

Besides, there were other people, other _elves_ , around, and so Sakura knew she would _definitely_ be able to pull down her hood if it was only her and her father, maybe Naruto and one other person there too. _She would totally be able to manage such a feat then. Totally. She was just terrified of too large a groups of people._ There had never been any good experiences with them, _and_ Sakura realised blandly, _that had very much affected her._ Dimly, she wondered if her many small traumas regarding pretty much everything and anything about her could give Kakashi a run for his money. _Probably._ Though it didn’t help her with attempting to reveal her identity to the one person it really should have mattered to. _Of course she would introduce herself to him – just maybe after she had learnt a bit more about that world of her father’s._

Sakura ignored the way her stomach twisted at the thought, and the way fear gnawed at her belly. _Coward._

“Estel, brother!” an unfamiliar voice sounded, and Sakura startled as two elves appeared so very quickly. The reminder that she was in a place full of her _people_ was being drilled in so very hard right then and there, and Sakura wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. “You have finally returned to us!” that same voice continued, and Sakura could only blink owlishly at what had to be twins. Their appearances were too similar to suggest anything else. “You arrived just in time for dinner… will you be joining us, perchance? Or would you prefer for us to ask for it to be brought to your usual rooms?”

“Elladan, Elrohir,” Strider greeted, and Sakura could only blink owlishly between the three of them. _They didn’t look like brothers, the twins and Strider that was, but then again Strider had been raised there and wasn’t an elf in the first place._ Sakura didn’t see how it was her business. Just like part of her didn’t see her elvish-ness being anyone else’s business but her own. _And possibly her father’s too,_ but she was oh so incredibly nervous on that front. “I—”

“A child?” the second elf – who she was going to tentatively dub as Elrohir given she thought Strider would have addressed the one who spoke to him first.

Elladan blinked, as if finally noticing her there in Strider’s arms, hands seemingly moving on instinct as they reached out for her – whether to take her or pull back her hood, Sakura didn’t know. She just flinched away from the grabby hands, hiding herself a little better within Strider’s grasp. “She might just be a little shy…”

“You should take Lothien to the Halls of Healing,” Glorfindel spoke then, oblivious to the way her stomach twisted and writhed at his words _because he was her father._ “Hwindion too, and have the healers check them over.”

A hand landed on her back there, seemingly ignorant of the way she tensed up at the touch, hands curling in the fabric of her hood that much more. “Is the little one hurt?” Elrohir asked, and Sakura risked a peek only to spy an oddly concerned expression on the elf’s face as his eyes flickered between her, Strider, and Glorfindel then.

“Hwindion and Lothien were both exposed to the Black Breath,” the golden elf – _her father,_ she corrected dimly in the depths of her mind, and that was going to take a lot of getting used to – explained. “I presume though—”

There was a loud clatter behind them, along with a thump, the familiar sound of a body falling onto the floor greeting her ears like old friends. Sakura turned almost immediately, heart in her throat as she spied those blonde locks on the ground. “Hwindion!” she cried, fear and relief seeping through her as there was movement and elves appearing then to check on her dear friend and load him onto a stretcher which promptly arrived.

“He is burning up,” she heard one elf say, even as she all but climbed Strider to peer over his shoulder at her best friend.

“Calm yourself, Lothien,” Strider murmured then, a hand coming to pat at her back as she loosened her death grasp on his shoulder then. “You are in Imladris – Hwindion will be tended to, and your friend and guardian will soon be right as rain,” he said, and Sakura hated the _childish_ part of her which felt reassured by such simple words. She herself was a _healer_ – a medic – and so she ought to have noticed if Naruto had been feeling unwell.

Then again, Strider and pretty much everyone else were treating her like the child she was acting like, and hadn’t allowed Hwindion to carry her. If he had been carrying her, she knew she would have noticed. It would have been impossible for the student of Tsunade to miss such a thing. _Yet she had, and the incompetence she always felt she had as a student and a medic flared then like a festering, infected wound._ “Promise?” she spoke then, injecting as much of a childish, naïve hope and trust into her voice as possible. _The show had to go on, even if her friend was unconscious._ Besides, she had managed without him for a few days before.

The back of a hand pressed itself to her forehead then, and Sakura blinked, curing her wayward attention as Glorfindel pulled back, a frown on his face. “She does not seem to be afflicted with the same symptoms as Hwindion,” he remarked. “How odd…” he murmured, looking far too pensive then for a few moments. “I would have thought any aftereffects of the Black Breath would have shown worse in you thanks to your smaller size…”

Sakura felt her eyebrow twitch at the blasé mention of her tiny _too small_ size which had been a sore spot for her for far too long. “I am _fine,_ ” she grumbled then, folding her arms with a huff. “Just because I am smaller does not mean I am _weaker_.”

She hated the indulging looks she received for that comment, heat rising in her cheeks only moments later as her stomach growled far too audibly. “But it is best to make sure, no?” Strider spoke, glancing down at her then, and Sakura only hummed under her breath. “I am certain we can have some dinner brought to us there.”

“Very well,” Sakura said, shifting somewhat in Strider’s hold as he moved forwards then, stomach twisting something fierce as _her father_ decided to tag along with them to these Halls of Healing for one reason or another. _But it wasn’t like he knew – she was just some random child to him._ He probably didn’t think she was an elf – just some strange human child who had been taught an extinct dialect of Sindarin. Her brow furrowed then. _Why would a language only used seventeen years ago go extinct?_ Her stomach twisted, nerves and hunger making it feel that much worse than before as she was carried off towards the Halls of Healing. “Is there a library around here?” she asked, an idea coming to her then.

_If in doubt, play to ones strengths._ Her strengths were generally her strength, medical knowledge, and her bookish tendencies. The library would be the best place to figure out what she needed to know. If not, there might be a librarian or custodian and she could covertly ask them for information. A smile pulled at her lips. _Then once she had figured out that which she needed to know… then she could go and introduce herself to her father…_

Her fingers twitched, nervousness making her shake somewhat at the thought of that looming explanation, the reveal that her mother was truly dead unlike her, and the possibility of rejection. “What would you want with the library?” One of the twins popped into view, and Sakura felt the bundle of nerves in her stomach knot that much further. “Would you not rather play? We can ask father if you would like an area to play in, though he is currently busy tending to your travelling companion and will likely be busy for the foreseeable future…” His hand went to his chin then, brow furrowed in thought.

Sakura blinked, wondering why on earth they thought she wanted to _play_. Then again, she probably ought to play around – she couldn’t afford for her skills to slip when it came to kunai and shuriken. She would have to ask for where their appropriate target boards were and if they minded her playing there. But that could wait until after she had figured out the library. “But the library?” she said, tilting her head then, green eyes large and pleading as she stared up at the elf. “Are… children not allowed in the library?” she asked, chewing on her lip. _Because if she couldn’t get into the library, then she would have to figure out a way around that… like sneaking in late at night when everyone else had gone to sleep…_

“Of course you would be welcomed in the library… it is only that most of the texts there are written in Sindarin and Quenya, depending on which age you wish to study…” Elladan – or so she thought – said, smiling genially at her then.

“I can read,” she grumbled, folding her arms, irritation surging at the thought of him thinking her illiterate.

“You might be able to read Westron and speak some Sindarin—”

“I can read Sindarin and _Quenya_ , thank you very much,” Sakura said primly, huffing as she turned away from the elf who thought her illiterate. “Though I am unfamiliar with Westron both written and spoken, but I think what I want to read about will not be written in that language.”

“Lothien does not come from these parts,” Strider intervened then, and Sakura could have hugged him, so very grateful for the save. Never before had she missed Naruto as much as she did in that very instant. “She and Hwindion travelled here from afar… though I suspect they both might just be a bit lost.” Strider sent a pointed glance his _brother’s_ way.

“Oh.” Elladan blinked then, evidently having got whatever message Strider had wanted to say from that glance alone. Though the appearance of another elf brought a halt to the conversation, and Sakura resigned herself to being checked over by the elven equivalent of Konoha General. Fortunately, no hood removing was necessary, and so Sakura was soon allowed to venture in to check on Naruto who was now resting rather peacefully. Both the twins, Strider whom everyone there called Estel, and Glorfindel vanishing soon after, leaving her in peace with only Naruto’s soft snores to break up the quiet of the evening.

Dinner arrived soon after, a pretty female elf delivering it and uttering some assurances to her as she sat there, watching over the sleeping form of her best friend. _Elves knew how to make good food,_ or so she decided, munching on the bits of herby warm bread which tasted absolutely divine. Sakura didn’t quite know what elves did for meals, but she had received an odd selection of food. _Like a buffet._ Sakura smiled then, polishing off the plate given to her, wondering what she was meant to do with it then. _Nothing had been poisoned, or so she assumed, given she wasn’t wholly familiar with the poisons native to that area._ It would have to be a crime if someone had poisoned that lovely food. _Though Naruto would have probably been disappointed there was no ramen,_ Sakura mused, a grin pulling at her lips then, even as Naruto snored and moved about in his rest. _Then again, he wasn’t worrying about introducing himself to his estranged father._ A snort of hysterical laughter escaped her. _No, Naruto had already introduced himself to his dead father, and he had been much quicker and less scared about it._ Though maybe that was because he had first met his father when his seal had weakened and the Nine-Tails, Kurama as Naruto liked to correct them all, had nearly broken free. Sakura shuddered at the memories of that day, pushing herself to her feet then, taking her empty plate with her as she hesitantly ventured into the corridor.

“Hello?” she called softly, nerves making her voice sound terribly frightened and quiet.

“Hello there,” a voice replied, and Sakura barely resisted the urge to jump at how close the lady was. _Elves and their uncannily light footsteps._ Though Sakura supposed she couldn’t disparage that aspect of their nature as much as she might have wished to – after all, it had helped her out on many occasions when venturing out on a mission with a high need for stealth. “Can I help you, little one?” the lady asked, and Sakura felt herself bite her lip at the reminder of her own lacking height. Though she supposed being called _child_ would have led to almost the same reaction. She was hardly a child, no matter her tiny body. She had graduated the academy, joined Team Seven, killed bandits with them, fought in a war with her team too… There was no way she could see herself as a child, but then again she was meant to be pretending to be one for a while longer… _what with the fact she looked like one, and it was better for people to see what they expected to see._

“Lothien,” she corrected without much thought, silently praying she wasn’t making some terrible faux pas. “My name is Lothien.”

The lady smiled, and Sakura felt horribly relieved, even as grey eyes stared down at her, light brown hair braided back from her face as she crouched down somewhat, even dressed in the long dress that she was. “Well met, Lothien,” she said. “My name is Canneth.”

Sakura blinked, shifting on her feet in the silence that fell for a few moments as she pondered over what she was meant to say next. “Uh… Nice to meet you?” she tried, feeling alarmingly happy at the proof _that had been the right thing to say_ as the lady smile warmed that much more. “I, uh, wasn’t quite sure what to do with my plate…”

“We can take it to the kitchens, and then we can sort out your sleeping arrangements, yes?” Canneth spoke, and Sakura could only blink and nod placidly. _That sounded like an excellent idea indeed._


	11. the wraith slayers

The kitchens were bustling with activity, or so she found as she left her plate there. Everyone in there was more than happy to see her tiny form for no apparent reason, and Sakura could only feel shivers run down her spine at that. She wasn’t used to all those happy smiles and oddly fixating stares which followed her around. Sakura could still remember when eyes had followed her before, curious but always mocking her lacking height and the baby fat still lining her cheeks and wrists. Her fingers pulled at her hood, ensuring it was covering as much as it could, feeling altogether far too jumpy as Canneth walked her towards where _Estel_ waited for them. Though Strider wasn’t alone, or so she found out as she was taken to a quiet lounge – or so she presumed it to be. It certainly wasn’t a place to play, rather a place to sit and talk with others after the evening meal.

Evening had passed, night time well on its way, the moon slowly making its way across the sky. Sakura was only glad nobody was trying to force her off to bed, what with her childish appearance. She didn’t think she would be able to sleep like that, more so given those twins who Strider referred to as being _brothers_ were in the room along with her father himself. _Not that he knew it._ But Sakura wouldn’t tell him yet. She wanted to be able to explain the situation as best as possible, and there were little things eating at her. Little things which didn’t quite add up.

So the library it was tomorrow, if only to get some answers to feel that much more confident in going up to Glorfindel and introducing herself properly. Her stomach still twisted at the thought of doing just that, but by the time she was finished with the library she was certain she would be ready. _Definitely._ A sigh escaped her then, and she cuddled her knees to her chest then as she sat in the middle of the sofa with her _father_ and Strider on either side. Sakura briefly contemplated leaning against her father then, seeking out some form of comfort as she had once done with her mother when she was younger. She cast the idea away before it could fully take hold, knowing it stupid and irrational, instead resting her head on her knees as the _adults_ spoke. _She was an adult too – she’d been one ever since she graduated._ Not that they knew that. _Her childish mask was practically perfect._ Sakura allowed herself a small smug smile at the thought, the curve of her lips hidden by her knees.

The door swung open then, and another tall elf walked in. _They were all far too tall in her opinion,_ or so Sakura mused, watching as he took a seat beside Elladan opposite them. “No change,” the newcomer announced, and Strider’s shoulders sunk. “Though there is still time for that to change,” he continued, sitting back with a quiet sigh.

“Indeed,” Glorfindel said, and Sakura could only tilt her head in question.

“The state of Frodo he is talking of,” Strider explained to her then, evidently having spied her confusion then and there.

“Oh.” Sakura blinked. “Will he be okay?” she asked, remembering how pale the hobbit on the horse had seemed throughout the last leg of their journey. He had been stabbed by the Witch King, she dimly remembered.

“It is early days yet,” Strider remarked, a smile on his face. “But I trust in both Frodo’s strength and my father’s skill.”

Sakura blinked again, choosing to wisely hum and nod along. _She did hope the hobbit was okay though._ She didn’t like the exploding evil creatures who’d gotten the drop on her. Silently she swore to trim their numbers, should she ever encounter them again. She knew about the ‘Black Breath’ effect after they exploded now – so she would be able to work around it. Nodding to herself, she decided that was a very good idea indeed. “I do too!” she declared, injecting as much naïve hope and optimism into her voice then. _She sounded like a child._ Sakura didn’t allow herself to smile at the thought. She hardly wanted to be suspicious.

“Who might you be?” the voice of the newcomer sounded then, and it took barely a second for her to realise he was talking to her. She was, after all, the only one in the room who the new elf wouldn’t recognise, what with being only one of the two _humans_ there. _Or so they thought,_ Sakura thought, a ball of nerves knotting themselves in her gut at the thought of being ousted as an _elven_ child. She hadn’t seen any running about, but then again, she hadn’t seen much of Imladris as of yet. _She might not be as strange and rare as the stares directed her way suggested_. That would change in the morning thought – she was going to the library, and she was going to research the ‘Fall of Gondolin’ and more things about her father before she summoned up the courage to reveal her true identity there.

Sakura nodded, before she realised the elf was still waiting for an answer. “I’m Lothien,” she said, smiling there as innocently as she could. “Nice to meet you!”

The elf smiled then, grey eyes seeming to soften, and Sakura mentally patted herself on the back for making a good _childish_ impression on the elf. “I am Erestor,” he said in return. “Well met.”

Silence fell for a moment, and then the rest of them resumed their conversation. Sakura was content to sit there and listen – at least until the topic of conversation inevitably turned towards ‘The Nine’ as the exploding, black cloaked beings were termed there for some reason. Though they weren’t quite the _Nine_ anymore. Rather they were the Seven, and Sakura could only blink for what had to be the hundredth time as Strider brought out a handful of finely ground metal and a ring which had been neatly sliced in half. “Oh,” she whispered, realising it had indeed been a _ring_ on the shade’s hand. _And it made more sense to her why she was there then rather than being rushed off to bed like she suspected would happen sooner rather than later._

“Estel…” Glorfindel trailed off, and Sakura heard the sharp intakes of breath as they all looked at the remains of the two rings upon the low table between their seats. _Not that you could really tell the finely grounded pile of metal had once been a ring._ Sakura blamed Naruto and his gratuitous use of rasengan for that. But then again, he had a ridiculous amount of chakra to throw around. “This cannot be what I think it is, can it?” he asked, fingers ghosting over the two halves of the ring before drawing back so very suddenly as if the remains of the ring there had burnt him.

“Though nine may have set out, henceforth there will only ever be seven…” Strider said, voice unusually solemn.

“Two wraiths…” Erestor breathed, an awed, almost reverent fervour to his voice there. “They have been destroyed with their rings?” he murmured, biting his lip in thought then. “How?”

“I had wanted to wait until father joined us… but I suppose you might as well explain now how you accomplished such a feat, Lothien, given Hwindion cannot currently give us his own testimony,” Strider said, staring at her then, and Sakura abruptly felt every eye in the room fix on her tiny little form.

Sakura stared at them all, gaze shifting from elf to elf to human nervously. _She had just destroyed the evil being who had tried to hurt her and the rest of the hobbits too._ “Uh,” she mumbled, feeling very much in the spotlight right then and there. “Well…”

“A child?” her father demanded then, gaze flickering between her and Strider then. “How can this be, Estel?” Glorfindel asked, looking oddly torn between worry and awe whenever his gaze fell upon her. “How could a child have accomplished that which grown men and elves have failed to do?” he asked, and Sakura felt that familiar anger rise at being thought of as a _child._ At being thought of as _lesser_ somehow just because she was so small. _She was seventeen._ That was decently old in shinobi terms. Then again she was no longer in the Elemental Nations, and she had to keep all those issues and annoyances of hers under wraps if she wanted to keep on playing the child as she knew she ought to.

“I do not know,” Strider said, sighing then. “Which is why I asked…”

She shifted in her seat then, well aware of the other eyes still fixed upon her in awe, curiosity, and concern, oddly enough. “But I just stabbed him,” she explained, hiding her face in her knees just that bit more, her voice coming out a bit muffled. _That was suitably childish enough, wasn’t it?_ After all, it was hardly like she was _actually_ scared, of course. _Though elves were kind of intimidating._ “And I kept on stabbing until I found his weak spot…” she continued, _because that was something normal children did._ Well, unless they were civilians.

“I think what the puzzle here is, Lothien,” Erestor spoke then, and Sakura peeked out from behind her kneecaps, “is that the Nazgûl cannot be hurt by normal blades… indeed, they do not reside in this Seen World, rather their bodies exist solely in the Unseen Realm, and that is not something mortals can interact with lightly, if at all…”

“But I just stabbed him!” Sakura stated once more, mind racing then, because _what had she done differently to everyone else there?_ “Is it because of this blade?” she tried, offering out the dagger both Strider and Glorfindel had seen before.

Erestor’s eyes widened at the sight of it, eyes flickering up to stare at her father then for a brief moment before he turned his attention back to all that was unfolding right then and there. “While of elven make, I do not think it capable of slicing through a ring in this fashion,” Erestor said, gesturing to the two halves of the ring there. “Though…” he trailed off, turning his eyes on the pile of metal dust. “I am not entirely sure what could have caused such damage to a ring in this case…”

Sakura hugged her knees then, crossing her arms as best she could. “Blame that one on Hwindion,” she muttered, fear and realisation curling in her gut then, because Erestor was correct in some parts. A knife, even the precious ones her father had given her mother, could hardly have cut through metal like butter. It was only her chakra which had allowed her to do as such. _And obviously nobody there could use chakra._ Or at least not use it the way she and Naruto had been taught, otherwise they would have recognised the damage from weapon reinforcement and a destructive jutsu like the rasengan for what they were. Dimly, she could remember her mother saying that the world of Arda was different to the Elemental Nations. _Now it was really starting to sink in._

A yawn escaped her then, and her eyelids began to droop, even with all the many thoughts and fears racing about inside that tiny head of hers. _One could not resist the whims of the body._ “Ah,” her father spoke then, and Sakura turned to look up at him through sleepy green eyes, tilting her head in question, wondering what he was about to say. His grey eyes flickered over to the window before landing back on her. Sakura wondered what he saw when he looked at her. _He could probably only make out her face lined with baby fat and her green eyes. Like her mother._ “We ought to wrap up such a discussion now,” he said, lips curling up into a gentle smile. “I do believe it is bedtime for someone here,” he added, wry amusement in his voice, and Sakura could only blink, shrug, and decide to abandon those fears momentarily as she let herself fall and slump against her father’s side. Part of her relished in the closeness, wishing all the while that the words _‘I’m your daughter’_ – the words which could explain everything she wished to – were so much easier to say then and there.

* * *

He felt the impact of a little, sleepy body against his side, and Glorfindel could only smile fondly down at the child who seemed to be rather quickly falling fast asleep against him. Those green eyes were far too welcome of a sight, but that wasn’t quite what gave him pause as Lothien used him for a substitute pillow. Rather it was the locks which escaped her hood somewhat messily. She had her hair tied back, that much had been obvious from the way none of her hair had been visible while they had been travelling. Evidently, some hair had escaped whatever style it was that mortal children favoured. Cast in shadow as it had been, he had thought it a pale brown, perhaps a dark blonde, but he had been so terribly wrong. The proof was in the way that small, yet admittedly rather long lock of hair blended imperceptibly with his own hair.

His breath caught in his throat, hand moving then, only lightly brushing against her hood before he remembered the child was so terribly shy about their own appearance. He was hardly going to go against what she so wished – given she still wore her hood, despite Estel’s urging to do otherwise. “Where did Canneth say she would be preparing for her to sleep?” he asked, carefully slipping his hands underneath her arms, lifting the sleepy little child with ease. _She felt far too light, if he were honest with himself, and part of him resolved to investigate that._

Lothien woke with a light groan, a terribly cute sound – one he hadn’t heard for a long while. Not since, perhaps, on the few occasions Little Lady Arwen had fallen asleep on him back before she had reached her growing spurt. Sleepy green eyes peered up at him then as he carried her, a pang in his heart at the _familiar_ colouring. Her arms went around his neck then, tiny hands clasping at the back of his neck before she pressed her face against his and went back to sleep, if the soft, rhythmic puff of air against his collar were any indication. His smile widened even as Erestor stared at him knowingly.

“I believe Canneth said the rooms just opposite my own,” Strider informed him then, and Glorfindel only inclined his head in acknowledgement before he made towards the door. He was barely outside of the room when the conversation started back up behind him.

“He is going to spoil that child,” Elladan said, and he could only smile, adjusting his hold on little Lothien then as he ensured his gait was smooth so as to not disturb her as she slept.

“He would spoil _any_ child,” Elrohir remarked, and his smile only widened. He risked a glance down at the sleeping child then, sighing in relief when he saw she was miraculously already fast asleep. _Though children did get sleepy far quicker, if he was remembering correctly._

“But one with green eyes and golden hair especially,” Erestor chipped in, and a hum of amusement rumbled in his chest, even as he ventured off to tuck the little one in.

His hand rested on that tiny, small back, his smile so terribly fond as his focus wavered between the corridor before him and the child in his arms. “Sleep, little wraith slayer,” he whispered, patting her soothingly on the back, even as she continued to sleep on in his grasp.

* * *

Morning greeted her with the chirping of birds, the remnants of a nightmare from the night before, and a smiling face with grey eyes which stared down at her as she blinked away the sleep and traces of terror from her eyes. “Good morning Lothien!” One of the twins from the evening before greeted.

“Who?” she grumbled, rubbing at her eyes then before she stretched and yawned, ignoring the odd coo that drew from the elf.

“It is I – Elrohir,” he said, altogether with far too much drama, mischief lining his voice. “I am here to inform you that you have a decision to make,” he continued, and Sakura sat bolt upright, fear and worry pulsing through her. _Were they kicking her out of Imladris or something? Had Hwindion done something so incredibly stupid? Had they sensed something wrong with Naruto and the fox?_ Sakura didn’t know what they thought of Tailed Beasts in those lands. _Did they actually have any?_ Her mother had never told her of such things. The only creatures she could really remember from her mother’s tales were the balrogs who had come and ruined everything. Her heart raced in her chest, and she stared at the elf. Evidently her worry must have shown, because Elrohir was so very quick to explain. “Nothing bad,” he said, hands out in a gesture of surrender. “There is a while yet until the bell rings for the morning meal… you can, of course, go as you are, or perhaps have breakfast brought to you – no one will mind – but I was rather wondering if you would like me to have someone draw you water for a bath?”

Sakura blinked, feeling oddly stupid for working herself into a slight panic over nothing. “Oh,” she mumbled, risking a sniff of her underarm and flinching from the smell. Her nose wrinkled, even as Elrohir laughed at her expense.

“I will take that as a yes,” he said, laughing still. “I will leave you now, but I will come and visit you once more after you have rid yourself of the stench you carry… or perhaps my brother will,” he murmured then, practically skipping to the door then. “I will see you later, Lothien!”

Sakura could only stare at the door, feeling as though she had been hit with a genjutsu. _Elves were strange,_ she decided. _Though she was one of them, and they would eventually know such a thing too._ She rather hoped they would be accepting of her own strangeness.


	12. the shinobi games

Sakura stared at the bathtub before her, some small part of her shrieking in joy at the sight of hot, steamy water along with various jars of what had to be hair cleaning or body soaps. She almost salivated at the sight – because she hadn’t seen a bath for what felt like years, and she was altogether, far too eager to be inside it. There was only one problem though, and that was the elleth who was _still in the room_ with her right then and there. _Did they think she couldn’t bathe herself for some reason?_ Sakura tilted her head in thought, the answer coming to her in a flash then as her brain decided to stop being asleep, or so it seemed. _That childish act she had been doing was probably the root cause of it all._ Sakura supposed she couldn’t blame them all for being fooled by her amazing skills at imitating a child. Though that didn’t change the fact she was seventeen and could easily bathe herself by that point in time.

“I can bathe by myself,” she declared, making pointed motions between the lady and the door. _They hadn’t filled up the bathtub fully, for crying out loud – she was hardly about to drown in such a level of water._ She gestured towards the door once more before folding her arms and standing her ground. _Because bathing meant she needed to take her clothes off if she actually wished to get clean, and she was not letting some elleth she had briefly met yesterday see her pointed ears – the proof of her elven heritage._

Her father would be the one to see her pointy ears first, or so she told herself. _Coward._ Sakura shifted on her feet, watching and waiting as Canneth eventually came to the wise decision that _yes, it was fine to leave her to bathe on her lonesome._ But not before pressing what Sakura recognised to be _clothes_ along with a sinfully soft, fluffy towel _._ There was even a grey, soft elven cloak included. _Along with what had to be fresh underwear, which Sakura wasn’t going to think on for too long._ She didn’t particularly want to muse on somebody putting in a rush order for bloomers the day before, _or on how they had managed to figure out the measurements for her._

But fresh clothes and the elleth who had hurried out of the room aside… She had a bath to get into, and Sakura wasted no time in stripping off her dirty clothes and climbing inside. A soft, happy sigh escaped her, the blissful warmth surrounding her then, even as she got to work with scrubbing body and hair with the best scented soaps. She couldn’t quite remember when Elrohir had said the morning meal was, and there weren’t any locks on the door. She was going to be in and out of that bath as quickly as she could, despite how wonderful it was. There were things she would risk revealing her identity over, but a bath wasn’t one of them.

Nodding then, hair wet but clean, she climbed out of the bath, a smile on her face as she dried herself off as quickly as elvenly possible. Body dry, the towel went over her hair and ears, concealing them should anyone decide to rudely barge in to see if she had been stupid enough to drown herself in a small amount of water.

Fortunately, they didn’t and Sakura was happy to pull the hood of the nice, soft cloak over her slightly damp hair and ears. She felt that much safer almost instantly, and with that done and dusted, she ventured out of the bathroom there.

“Ah, there you are, Lothien!” Elrohir exclaimed, smiling brightly at her then, from where he was standing in the middle of her room. “Are you fine to venture down for breakfast? Your friend Hwindion is awake, and was rather insistent on coming down for the morning meal, my brother and Glorfindel are with him now,” he said, and Sakura stuck her hand into his outstretched, waiting one in an instant. Her feet moved as quickly as they could, part of her itching to see Naruto – if only to ensure he didn’t let anything slip as to her heritage and the identity of her father.

Elrohir looked rather bemused, evidently not minding the fact she was pulling him along. “Which way?” she demanded, and the older elf only chuckled indulgingly.

“This way,” he said, easily outpacing her with his stupidly long legs. _Sakura hated being short along with looking like a child to boot._ He didn’t walk too quickly though, evidently keeping in mind her annoyingly short legs and shorter gait.

Sakura ditched the fast walk for a running speed.

“That eager to see Hwindion, are we?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Sakura grunted, shrugging her shoulders then. “Hwindion will eat all the food otherwise,” she explained succinctly. “He has a terrible appetite on the best of days, and he has just recovered from that fever or whatever it was,” she said, not wanting to appear too eager to monitor, _and probably censor_ whatever Naruto said.

Subtlety was something she had in spades. Naruto didn’t quite have the same grasp on it that she did, and sometimes he liked to let things slip for amusement purposes. _Truly, he had been around Kakashi for far too long._ Sakura could only mentally shake her head at the reminder, ignoring the fact she had spent a similar amount of time with their sensei.

Elrohir laughed. “Then make haste we will,” he declared, leading her down some stairs and through some corridors, and from then on, it was just a matter of following the scent of food. Dinner the evening previous had been wonderful, and Sakura was rather looking forwards to what would be on offer for breakfast. _It was so very different to the cuisine of the Elemental Nations._

They entered the hall then, revealing long tables ladened with an assortment of foods, and Sakura slipped her hand from Elrohir’s then as she spied those familiar blonde locks and those whiskered cheeks. “Hwindion!” she called, sprinting forwards then, nimbly manoeuvring around elves and tables to greet her friend with a running tackle. There was no chakra behind it, as occasionally there was, so Naruto didn’t stumble as he spun around and out of his seat to greet her. “Is your fever gone?” she asked, hands reaching for his forehead, even as she felt the weight of numerous eyes upon her cloak-clad form.

“Mmhm.” Naruto nodded. “I’m fine now!” he declared, much to her own relief, and Sakura quickly turned her attention to the spread of breakfast before them. It was laid out in a buffet style, with bread seeming to be a staple food compared to the rice which was more common in the Elemental Nations. Sakura didn’t particularly care as her stomach growled and a clean plate was handed to her courtesy of Elrohir.

* * *

She only had the chance to speak with Naruto in private _after_ they had finished their breakfast, and Sakura pulled him into a little alcove behind a statue then, the both of them ducking out of sight as Strider waltzed passed.

“We are going for the library,” Sakura said, folding her arms then. “We can make some subtle enquiries about the fall of Gondolin and my mother’s history there, okay?”

“Sure thing!” Naruto proclaimed, and Sakura felt oddly ill right then and there _because she recognised that smile._ It was one which declared ‘all would be fine’. _And five minutes later something had always gone terribly wrong._

“ _Subtle,”_ she repeated, stressing the word. “As in, no talking of me and my circumstances.”

Naruto grinned, giving her a thumbs up. “Don’t worry – I’ll make subtle enquiries!” he declared once more, and Sakura only stared at him sceptically for a few more moments, wondering whether she could take such a statement at face value. On one hand, she did trust Naruto. He was her best friend ever. On the other hand, _subtlety thy name is not Naruto_. The sound of footsteps making their way towards them made her decision for her, and Sakura could only nod in response as Elladan, Elrohir, and her father appeared then, peering around the statue to find them.

“Are we playing hide and seek?” Elrohir asked wryly, smiling at them both then.

“We were discussing what we wanted to do for today, what with how your brother said we would likely have to stay here for a while longer,” Naruto said smoothly, and Sakura blinked at the excuse he had come up with—

“We _have_ to stay here for a while longer?” Sakura parroted, blinking then. _Obviously they were going to stay because her father was there… not that anyone seemed to think there was even the slightest possibility of her being an elven child. And she hadn’t seen any other children at the tables for breakfast._

Glorfindel frowned momentarily then. “You remember your encounter with the former _Nine_ , do you not?” he asked, waiting for them both to nod or otherwise state their answer before he continued. “The Enemy who sent them will be keeping an eye on the comings and goings around this area, though they cannot reach us here. It will likely take a few months before it is safe to travel, in which it is advisable for you both to remain here,” he said, looking straight at her then. “You can resume your search for your father then, worry not.”

Sakura blinked, wondering how he knew of that— _oh wait, Naruto had let that much slip to Strider._ Which was probably how he knew, and Sakura could only curse Naruto’s loose lips. _She didn’t need to find her father – rather, she just needed to introduce herself because he was right there in front of her…_ In fact, it would probably have been an excellent moment to whip back her hood and say _‘I already found him’_ but the moment passed too quickly.

“Is it alright if I go and nose around in your library?” Naruto asked, ensuring the moment for a possible dramatic reveal well and truly passed, and Sakura could only despise her own cowardice. _But then again she wanted to know more about her mother and her history as well as figure out the niggling nuggets of information which didn’t seem to line up._ She wanted to ensure she had her facts straight before she revealed herself to her father. _It was a perfectly logical course of action._

“I do not see how that would be a problem—Erestor!” Elladan turned all of a sudden, and Sakura looked to see the elf from the previous evening there in the corridor with them. “Hwindion here would like to peruse the library,” he said, smiling genially at the other brunette then.

Erestor sighed, beckoning Naruto over then, and Naruto only turned to smile at her briefly before he went over to the elf. He was promptly shepherded away, leaving Sakura with three of her own kind. Dimly, Sakura wondered why she hadn’t also asked to go to the library. It wasn’t like it would be that suspicious for both of them to raid the library for information. _They could just be bookworms for all the elves knew._ She was certainly just that at times, though Naruto would choose the sparring grounds over a good book. _Uncultured._ That was what he was. _She and her mother had jokingly called him that at times._ Her heart ached then, and Sakura hated the tears both of sadness and frustration – _because she had gone there to meet her father and now was having trouble trying to introduce herself._

“Lothien…” Elrohir said then, crouching down. “Are you quite alright?”

Sakura nodded. “Just thinking about mother,” she said, wanting to kick herself preferably in the face as Elrohir looked at her, confusion evident on his own face.

“Your mother?”

“She, uh, died… recently,” she explained, the words choking their way out of her throat, voice sounding so very painfully upset, and regret hit Elrohir like a sledgehammer. _Truly, his emotions were all over his face._

“Fool,” Elladan muttered softly behind him. _Because obviously there was a reason it was only Naruto and her travelling to find her father._

“Oh,” Elrohir murmured. “I am sorry to have brought up such a topic, Lothien,” he said, looking appropriately cowed by both his twin’s reprimand and Glorfindel’s stern stare. Her father was really radiating his disapproval. “Still… shall we go out and play? We rummaged through our sister’s old things, and found this,” he continued, looking terribly hesitant as he passed her a ball. It was made of a light wood rather than the leather and fabrics she was so used to, and Sakura could only stare at the colourful patterns painted upon its surface with wonder. _It looked really fancy for something meant to be thrown about, but then again, elves seemed to prefer fancier things._

Tsunade wouldn’t have used it for any sort of game, especially not the main dodging game they had always played for training. _Because those really were what games were – training and preparation, always with a purpose._ She could still remember when her mother had taught them the kunai throwing game, and that had been excellent practice for her aim. But Sakura supposed she could play such a game later when she found or asked for the targets. She could play the dodging game for now.

“I will leave you to it then,” Glorfindel said, smiling at the three of them then, before he stopped all of a sudden. Sakura soon realised it was because her hand had fisted in the fabric of his trousers, face feeling terribly warm at the odd reaction she had. She supposed she could blame the fact he was her father and she rather wanted to spend more time with him. _Even if he had no idea of who she was._ It would give her a way to judge his temperament and see if he matched up to the tales her mother had told her of him. _Whether he would accept her despite Sakura not bringing her mother along… for her failure to save her mother…_ She was reaching for him with those same hands which had failed to save her mother. _And she had been Tsunade’s apprentice…_ The fabric slipped from her hands like it had burned her.

“I think she would like it if you joined us,” Elrohir said, an indulging smile on his lips then.

“Besides,” Elladan added, “father is still busy tending to the hobbit, so there will not be much you can do for him at this moment.”

Her father paused then, as if weighing up the options before him, before he nodded in agreement. “Very well,” he said, smiling down at her then. “Come. Let us go and play outside.” He offered out his hand then, ignoring the knowing smiles of the twins behind him.

Sakura wasted no time in grabbing a hold of that hand, smiling to herself as her father led her out to find an appropriate space to play the dodging game. That appropriate space turned out to be a garden of sorts. Thankfully it was out of the way of the main areas where elves tended to linger, meaning there were no eyes which followed her as she followed her father into the grassy area, ball tucked under her arm. “This should do,” Elrohir remarked from behind them.

Her hand slipped from Glorfindel’s own, bringing out the ball then, surrounding it with a thin layer of chakra for reinforcement. It was so light and looked far too breakable. Sakura hardly wanted to give them splinters, so reinforcing the light wooden ball. _Truly, it was far too light._ Sakura shrugged. _Elves clearly didn’t take the dodging game as seriously as those in the Elemental Nations._ She paused then, ignoring the way the three of them were staring curiously at her. _Did they play the dodging game there?_ She could only wonder for a few moments. _Elves did, after all, seem quite strange to her – meaning she probably seemed really strange to them, but Sakura wasn’t going to dwell on her fears of being a freak amongst her own people._ There wasn’t much else which could be done with a ball, meaning the dodging game _had_ to exist. Though elves didn’t seem to have chakra, ergo they must have just played it less seriously.

One did have to train their agility after all – it was the whole point of the game. Shinobi practiced dodging kunai, so obviously they had substituted kunai for balls when they were younger to make injuries less likely.

A smile spread across her face, and she launched the ball forwards, frowning then as it soared past Elrohir’s face to slam into the wall behind with a loud crunching sound. _It was too light, and that had thrown off her aim and maybe made her throw it just a touch too hard._ Though she hardly wanted to make it _too_ easy for the elves.

“Lothien…” her father called then, and Sakura blinked and turned to face him, ignoring the oddly sickly shade of white Elrohir had gone as he stared at the way the ball was lodged in the wall a matter of metres behind him. _Though to be fair, Sakura had gone that same shade of white when Tsunade had first started playing the dodging game with her, back when she was just twelve years old._

Sakura turned, smiling up at her father then. “Is something the matter?” she asked, tilting her head in question, wondering why he was staring between— _oh wait, elves didn’t have chakra._ She paused then, worry flaring through her. _But if she had thrown the ball without chakra it wouldn’t have really been a game because her throws would be so terribly slow and easy to dodge._

“Were you trying to take my brother’s head off?” Elladan called, voice wavering between light and serious as he went to extricate the ball from the wall.

“It would hardly have hurt if he dodged as you are _meant_ to,” she said, folding her arms then. “Besides, I hardly threw it _that_ hard,” she grumbled. “You would not last a second against my master,” she declared, knowing from the startled expression on his face that he must have been pretty terrible at the dodging game.

“Your master?” Elladan echoed, a frown on his face as he stared at her then, undamaged ball safely in his grasp. _Oddly enough, he didn’t look as though he was about to give it back to her._ “Are you someone’s apprentice? Yet you still ventured here to find your father?”

Sakura frowned. “I finished my apprenticeship, obviously,” she said, only gathering moments later that _oh yeah, she wasn’t meant to be ‘seventeen’._ Rather she was supposed to be, like, six years old at best. _And she didn’t think many children at that age got apprenticeships or even completed them, unless they were, say, Kakashi._ She shifted on her feet then. “Are we going to play?” she asked, desperate to divert the flow of the conversation and quickly so. _Subtlety thy name is not Sakura,_ or so she mused with a snort, praying all the while that Naruto was somehow, miraculously doing better at her. _Somehow she didn’t have much hope on that front, and she thought she probably ought to be heading to the library to monitor the situation._ But Sakura supposed she wanted to spend a bit more time with her father. Not to mention Naruto had _promised_ to be as subtle as he could, and Naruto generally kept his promises – except when he was being mischievous or meddling for another’s ‘own good’ or so he liked to call it.

“Ah, you see,” Glorfindel said, smiling somewhat more hesitantly then, eyes flickering between her and the slight ball-shaped indent in the wall, “we were thinking of playing a game which does not involve dodging…”

Sakura frowned yet again. “There’s a game which does not involve dodging?” she questioned, oddly confused by the concept of the ball not being dodged. It would after all, be more likely to break her hands if she had ever attempted to catch one of Tsunade’s throws. _Though she supposed it could have been used to try and counter a blow aimed for her, but again, that involved chakra which elves didn’t have… then again they didn’t have chakra with which to enhance their throws…_ meaning she was still stumped and couldn’t quite work out what the ‘throwing and catching’ game was meant to help with.

Her father continued to look down at her, grey eyes feeling oddly piercing. “Tell me, Lothien, have you never played throw and catch?” he asked, staring at her hard enough to make her shift on her feet and wonder what she was missing. The ball landed in his arms then, caught in his hands from where Elladan had thrown it at him. “Like so?” he remarked, throwing the ball back to Elladan then – Elrohir having gone and sat down on the nearest bench, still looking terribly pale-faced.

She watched a few more passed, blankly catching the ball when Elladan threw it ever so gently her way. _It was like they thought her so very breakable._ “What exactly is the point of this game?” she asked, still wondering about what it was supposed to train. _Hand-eye coordination?_ Her brow furrowed, even as she passed the ball to her father.

“What other point of games is there other than to have fun?” Elladan said, laughing then as if that was obviously what they were for. _And if Sakura had actually been six years old, she might have believed him_.

“Are they not used as training?” she asked, curious then as to how much elven society differed from that of the Elemental Nations. “The dodging game teaches agility.”

“I imagine it would,” Elrohir muttered darkly, still looking so terribly pale-faced.

Glorfindel caught the ball then, pausing in their game, what with how apparent it was that the concept of having fun while throwing and catching a brightly coloured ball was so very lost on her. “What games would you find more entertaining then?”

“Well, if you have a target board, I could practice my kunai throwing,” she remarked, hand going to the pouch she always kept on her. She never went anywhere without her weapons. That was an instinct drilled into her both by Kakashi and the events of the war now thankfully behind her.

“Kunai?” Elladan echoed, frowning at the unfamiliar word she had left untranslated.

“A type of knife from my homeland,” she said, bringing out one of them then from her pouch. Her mother had never carried kunai or shuriken, originally being from a samurai household in Iron. _So her father wouldn’t be getting any clues to her identity._

Her father frowned then, and Sakura could only blink as her kunai was snatched out of her hands. “These are not toys meant for children,” he said, peering at her closely then, and Sakura felt herself shift on her feet. It was unnerving – being scrutinised by her father, that was. “You are still armed. Why are you still armed?” he demanded then, having spied her knives still strapped to her waist.

Sakura blinked. _It was common sense to keep a weapon on one’s self at all times._ “Because an attack could come from any time at any place,” she said, staring at him in confusion. _Did he really think it was so safe in Imladris? Or did they have a way of preventing enemies from infiltrating its boundaries?_

Grey eyes widened, and Sakura felt as though she had done something terribly wrong even as she was plucked off of the ground, the ball being passed to Elladan in favour of her. “Do you not feel safe here?” her father asked, clutching her to his chest then, even as he stared down at her with concern in his eyes. _She still seemed like a child,_ she mused in relief, _even with how different things seemed to be in that place._ “I assure you, none would ever harm a child within this realm,” he stated so very earnestly that Sakura almost believed him.

“Estel mentioned that her lands were recently at war,” Elladan chimed in, and Sakura relaxed somewhat at the excuse that seemed to give her. _Because apparently nobody really carried weapons in an elven realm._

“Mm.” Sakura hummed in acknowledgement.

“Surely they did not make you participate in _war_!” her father cried, sounding terribly outraged then. Sakura, wisely, opted not to tell him she had been crucial in bringing down the main enemy by punching her in the head. _She wanted to seem normal there, though she was hardly doing a great job at that,_ Sakura thought miserably.

“I was mainly in the medical tents,” she declared, patting her father on the shoulder then as if that would quell the outrage and horror he was currently exuding. “Don’t worry!”

“You were _injured_?” Glorfindel demanded, adjusting his grip on her then to better stare down at her in horror.

“No, no,” she said, waving her arms before her in the negative. _She wouldn’t have gotten injured – she wasn’t incompetent, either as a shinobi nor a medic._ “I was just, uh, helping out in the medical tents – I was never in any danger there for the most part,” she continued, because there was that time Zetsu snuck in. A smile pulled at her lips. _But she had dealt with him easily enough._

She wasn’t quite sure whether or not her words made that much of a difference, what with how she was soon seated indoors on a sofa, with a blanket wrapped around her and a glass of warm milk in her hands.

_Elves were so very strange._


	13. the needed answers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warning: references/allusions in regards to the attempted non-con/sexual assault (but thankfully failed attempt) of a minor (because shinobi missions aren't always fun and games)

She was thoroughly weirded out by the time the lunch bell sounded. _Elves had a lunch bell._ It was an odd system – she had mostly associated temples with bells, given shinobi didn’t tend to have too much use for noisy things which would alert the enemy as to their location. There were three times per day which it rang – for each of the mealtimes there. The bell was a way of alerting them that food was ready, should the elves be eating with the rest of their community. Shinobi would never have done something like that because _hello poison,_ but the elves didn’t seem to worry about being poisoned and killed off. Sakura wondered if she ought to ask, but given how she had been wrapped in a blanket and given some admittedly rather tasty warm milk to drink for merely admitting to being in the medical tent in a war she didn’t think the elves would be okay with the implications. They were odd ducks like that. _And she was meant to be one of them._

“Come,” her father said, offering her his hand then. _Every elf she had come across and been introduced to seemed to be all too eager to hold her hand._ Sakura snorted at the thought. _They were like oversized children when it came to that._ “Hwindion should be coming out of the library, and you can meet with him.”

“Can I also visit the library after lunch?” she asked, staring up at her father, silently pleading for him to say _‘yes, I will take you there afterwards’_. “Please?” She looked up at him imploringly. “There are some texts I would rather like to read in relation to certain events.”

“It is mostly elven history collected within our libraries… well, in the languages you will be able to read, and you may wish to have Erestor on hand should you come across words you cannot understand,” her father said, even as he guided her back to the halls they had eaten in that very morning. “He is very knowledgeable about the lore of ages past.”

It was only the two of them by that point, what with Elladan and Elrohir vanishing off at some later point in the day. They had said they would be leaving for a few days, and would be back soon. _Something about ‘scouting’ for one reason or another. Or had it been information gathering?_ She couldn’t quite remember. Sakura had only nodded at their explanation for their sudden departure in understanding. It wasn’t like she had expected for them to remain around her forever. She was just some random child to them. Though she hoped soon enough she would be known to them as _‘Glorfindel’s daughter’_. Sakura was still working her way up to that reveal though.

She absolutely had to peruse the library first and figure out what had her senses in a twist though. That was something which had to be done before she presented the actual truth at her father’s feet. _Because she wanted him to believe her._ She didn’t want him to accuse her of being a liar who was trying to trick him for cruel nefarious purposes. _As shinobi were known to do,_ part of her whispered snidely.

Sakura didn’t think they had those there. _Everyone would have been far more worried about poison and weaponry if they did._ She sighed then, even as she was led on to the hall for lunch. _And towards more curious stares._ But Naruto was waiting for her, and Sakura rather hoped he had learned something – and that he deigned to share what he had learnt. She wanted facts, and then she wanted the courage to tell her father the truth.

“Lothien!” Naruto called, waving her over as they entered, and Sakura ran up to him then with a smile. “How was your _playtime_?” he asked, a mocking grin on his lips, but there was a weight to his eyes that hadn’t been there earlier.

“We could see you from the library,” Erestor remarked, giving Glorfindel a meaningful look and her father only smiled in a somewhat strained manner. “How is Elrohir…?” he asked hesitantly, eyes flickering between her and her father then.

“He will be fine – though he is currently out scouting,” her father remarked, busying himself in conversation with the other elf then, even as she turned to her best friend then with serious eyes which demanded answers from him.

“Tell me everything?”

Naruto nodded. “Once we go back to your rooms after lunch,” he promised, eyes heavy as they dropped back to his food. Sakura could only ponder on the oddity of his actions.

* * *

They left the elves after lunch, Glorfindel walking them both back to her rooms there. Naruto’s were apparently still being set up, what with him having been a resident of the Halls of Healing for the night previous. Her father had promised to return at a later hour, and then it was just her, Naruto, and the privacy and quiet of her rooms. “What is the matter with you?” she demanded only a few minutes after Glorfindel had vacated their presences. “Don’t tell me it is _nothing,_ either. You have never been able to lie to me.” Sakura folded her arms, staring intently at her best friend then, waiting for some answers both as to his behaviour at lunch and to the apparent history of the world there. _Though there had been a scroll and a large book deposited upon her bed at some point between her leaving for breakfast and returning from lunch._

“It’s… complicated…” Naruto mumbled then, seating himself down on her bed then, even as she remained standing and glaring at him, all the while waiting for him to spill the beans. “I learnt a lot of things about elves, you know…”

Sakura perked up at that. It hadn’t specifically been what she had told him to research, but actual information on _what_ she was, given she had been raised for so long believing she was _actually_ human. _Just with a weird bloodline._ Sakura liked to think she had coped rather well with the reveal only months previous that she _was not_ human.

“Elves don’t die of old age…” Naruto trailed off, looking anywhere but at her then.

She blinked, frowning then _because everything was meant to die of old age because skin cells wore out and the body started failing._ “What?” she asked, voice sounding incredibly faint _because Naruto didn’t have the face which said he was pulling her leg._ But he had to be pulling her leg, otherwise nothing _made sense._ “That’s a weird joke, Hwindion,” she muttered, laughter escaping her then. _It sounded anything but humorous._

“I’m serious, Lothien!” he said, and Sakura felt her stomach drop to her feet then, _because what exactly did that mean for her?_ She had always been taught that one grew up, aged if they were lucky enough, and then died, and then it was off to the Pure Lands. _Then again, she wasn’t human._ She had _never_ been human. Her mother hadn’t even been sure if she was half-human or fully elvish. Her parents were from different worlds, and the laws of genetics became so much more murky there. _Especially when her father was an elf – not human._ “There are few ways an elf can die, did you know that?”

Sakura snorted then, seating herself down on the bed as she struggled to get her head around the fact _she wasn’t going to drop dead of old age according to Naruto._ The same Naruto who was so very deadly serious right in that instant. It was an odd, if not wholly unfamiliar look. “No,” Sakura grumbled, bringing her knees to her chest, hiding her face in them as she continued to struggle to get her head around the fact _she wasn’t going to go grey and die._ Though admittedly, that explained why everyone there looked to be in their prime. “I barely know anything about elves, Hwindion,” she hissed, bitterness coating her words then. “I barely even know _how_ to be one.” _Because elves were so very strange to her, as proven by the ball and game fiasco._ Yet they were meant to be her people. _Not that they knew it as of yet._

“By injury… that’s the main one… but,” Naruto paused, looking so very pained and horrified then, and Sakura almost dreaded his next words. “Do you remember that mission… the one where I was almost too late,” he murmured then, voice pained and so very soft, his face reminding Sakura of her own when she had to inform family members that their beloved son, daughter, sister, or other relation had died and ventured onto the Pure Lands before them. _She didn’t like it._ Rather, she was worrying over _why_ Naruto was giving her such a look.

“I don’t think I could forget _that_ mission,” she muttered, shudders running down her spine, and she shivered violently at the memories of what had to be the worst mission she had ever been on. _And it had only been a C-Rank_. Naruto sidled over to her then, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulder as she remembered being nominated to go undercover as a child. _Not that it was ‘undercover’ as such because she looked like a bloody child, hence why she had been determined to be the only one for the job._ “But we don’t talk about that mission,” she hissed, curling up on herself that much more as she remembered the chakra bindings preventing her from utilising a simple escape technique. _It had all been to find some rich couple’s daughter who had vanished – been kidnapped by a pervert interested only interested in children, or so Sakura had been unlucky enough to find out._ “We _never_ talk about that mission—”

“You almost _died,_ Lothien,” Naruto hissed, tears in his eyes, hands shaking. “And I’m only just finding it out now… We… I almost lost you, and I didn’t even realise it…”

Her brow furrowed. “No,” she said, staring up at her evidently _confused_ best friend. “That bastard almost raped me, and that is _it_ ,” she hissed, hating being reminded of how weak she was once upon a time. “I did not nearly die and I’m _over_ it because _it_ did not actually happen, and I am strong enough to beat up anybody who dares to try and do _anything like that_ to me now.”

“Elves _die_ from being violated in such a way, Lothien,” Naruto said, and Sakura could only blink, head feeling almost fuzzy at the influx of new information. _Because seriously what was up with being an elf?_ “You almost _died._ And me and the other two were the ones who almost got you killed… who volunteered you to be put in such a situation where you would be so much more vulnerable compared to the rest of us…” he whispered, tears trailing down his cheeks as he pulled her into a hug right then and there. Sakura blinked, feeling strangely disconnected from the world around her then – like a television which had gone to being without signal. _Was she disassociating or something?_ She preferred to think she was in a state of confused disbelief, because she often liked to think of herself as the most mentally stable and grounded one of Team Seven. _Though she was no longer a member of that team. She had given that up in hopes of finding her father, and boy had she found him._

“Did you find anything about me being so small?” she demanded, all too eager to change the topic of conversation away from _that_ mission. She didn’t like to dwell on it. She _never_ did.

Fortunately Naruto was of the same mindset, though he didn’t stop hugging her – holding her like she might just up and vanish into thin air if he let go. _Something told her she was going to have to get used to clinginess in the near future._ “Elves are considered grown in body upon their fiftieth _begetting_ day, and only considered adult once they have reached a hundred years of age.”

Sakura blinked again, brain feeling terribly numb, but she wanted to know more and more – as much as she could about the confusing world she had landed in _and the slightly more confusing actions of her kin around her._ “Oh,” she mumbled blankly. “Cool…” she said, voice oddly devoid of emotion in that instant. _Because she had once thought that by fifty she would be getting her grey hairs._ Though that had been before she hadn’t grown with the rest of her once classmates.

Naruto laughed then, a sound which brought her some normalcy what with how everything had seemingly shifted in the last few minutes. “You’re a _child,_ Lothien!” he barked, and Sakura felt herself snap back to reality at that as a familiar anger coursed through her.

“Am not!” she hissed indignantly, so very glad to shed that scary numb feeling which had consumed her brain for far too long. “I graduated with you – we became _adults_ together, idiot!”

“That was in Konoha,” Naruto reminded her far too cheerfully, and Sakura felt a weight make itself known in her gut. _Because it was only by Konoha laws that she was an adult. Elves had their own laws._ She would be a child in their eyes _what with them not dying of old age._ Sakura didn’t know how to be a child. She certainly didn’t know how to be an _elven_ child. That point had all but been driven home by the weird ball game from earlier.

_Freak._

“But that wasn’t all I found out – and it’s not all that I need to tell you,” Naruto said, and Sakura could only blink. _There was more?_

“You actually studied?” she asked then, staring at her friend with a large amount of scrutiny. “ _You_?”

“Hey!” Naruto complained, a smile on his face. “This is for you – of course I paid attention… and that Erestor guy was really helpful too.” He continued smiling, and Sakura mirrored his appearance, quashing the memories of _that_ mission and locking them away in the depths of her mind. “He answered all of my questions that the texts couldn’t… he even sent the ones I asked him to here for you to read too… though I am under strict instructions to return them undamaged. Seriously, Lothien, that Erestor guy is kinda terrifying!”

Sakura snorted at that. “Go on then,” she said, sparing the texts behind them on the bed covers a single glance. “What did you find out from your subtle information gathering?”

“Well, you know the Fall of Gondolin Strider talked about on our travel here, the same one your mother once told us of,” he spoke, smiling dimming somewhat. “The event where your mother is thought to have died in when in reality she went back to the Elemental Nations… that Fall of Gondolin,” he continued, and Sakura stared at him sceptically.

“I am fairly certain that a city can only fall once,” Sakura remarked wryly, raising an eyebrow at him, even as her thoughts turned to her mother. “Come on,” she groaned. “Stop dragging this out, Hwindion!”

“Your father – Glorfindel – he… died…” Naruto said, trailing off then. “I’m probably explaining this really badly, but I needed Erestor’s help to understand it all because elves are _weird_. No offence, Lothien,” he continued, and Sakura only folded her arms and huffed at that – the greater part of her brain trying once more to process Naruto’s words and failing epically.

“My father is alive, idiot,” she stated, refuting his words then. “Or is the fact you saw him alive and breathing today lost on you?”

“Death isn’t permanent to elves!” Naruto said quickly, and Sakura could only blink as her brain struggled to keep up with all the information being unloaded upon it. _She was going to unpack this later,_ she decided, _with a glass of warm milk because that was tasty and oddly comforting for her._ And she really, really needed something vaguely comforting then to cope with everything Naruto was shovelling onto her right then and there. “They go to their version of the Pure Lands which is called the Halls of Mandos, and then they can be re-embodied… you can be reincarnated in the same body…”

“Huh?”

“Long story short – your father was re-embodied in this land called Aman where elves are meant to eventually go to and then sent back here to these lands… just look it up in the library if you go there later,” Naruto said hurriedly, having noticed the blank, gormless look on her face by that point, and Sakura could only blink and nod dumbly because _she didn’t understand_ and her brain had already been overloaded with things she still needed to get her head around _because elves were weirder than she had first thought and oh gods she was one of them._ “The more important thing I wanted to tell you is that this all happened in the First Age,” Naruto continued, and Sakura tried her hardest to follow. _She had the strangest feeling she would be spending a lot of time in the library in the coming days._

“And?” she asked, wondering where Naruto was going with it. It had only been seventeen years—

“Lothien, we are in the year 3018 of the _Third_ Age – I asked Erestor for the date,” her best friend said, reaching into his pockets then. “I made an imprint of the seal in my chakra and transferred it onto this paper to better try and understand why our timelines don’t seem to match up—”

“Wait,” she mumbled, blinking furiously then as she tried to get her head around that. _Third Age?_ Somehow she didn’t think a Second Age could be less than seventeen years. Nor that they could get to year 3018 of the Third Age in less than seventeen years from that. “Are you saying that _here_ my mother has been considered dead for _thousands of years_?” she demanded, cold fear curling in her belly then _because—because what did that mean for her father?_ He hadn’t evidently had only seventeen years to grieve. _No, from what Naruto was telling her, he’d had over three bloody thousand years to mourn, put it behind him, and move on._ “What?” _And now she would be dragging up thousand years-old history and grief what with her appearance._

Naruto shifted where he sat. “That sums things up, yeah, and I think I worked out why, you see,” he continued _as if he hadn’t just turned her world on its head yet again._ “The seal here… there’s two components which I think have messed with the time scale between our worlds, because you’re definitely only seventeen rather than, like, six-thousand.”

“Obviously,” Sakura stated flatly, brain feeling number with every second passed.

“They’re old runic symbols,” Naruto continued, pointing them out _as if Sakura understood anything about seals beyond the bare basics._ “There’s one which I’m fairly sure stands for _safety_ and another which stands for _intent,_ ” he added, proving once again that he was a sealing prodigy. _It was in his blood,_ Sakura mused, longing then to fixate on what she actually knew and understood, and Naruto’s unearthly talent in sealing was something she actually got. “I briefly asked of the Second Age and Erestor gave me the rough overview, and the conclusion I’ve come to is that this was decided as the safest time for us to enter this world to fulfil your intent to find your father…”

“We did get attacked by those _Nine_ ,” Sakura said, frowning. “They were hardly friendly,” she remarked, gritting her teeth at the memory of those cloaked figures.

“We dealt with them easily enough,” Naruto remarked with a smile.

“That we did,” Sakura muttered, flopping back on the bed then, even as her mind struggled to piece things together. “That we did,” she repeated, falling silent then as she tried to process everything Naruto had just told her.

Something told her it was going to be a long, long day for her and her poor brain.


	14. the night stroll

Even curling up under her quilt and blankets brought no reprieve to the glaring headache she had earnt herself trying to compartmentalise all the information Naruto had given her that very afternoon. Her stomach growled, reminding her she had missed dinner, _but how was she supposed to eat after everything she had just learnt?_ She didn’t know how she was supposed to see or even tell her father the truth _because it hadn’t been only seventeen years._

She peeked out from under the blanket then, a soft sigh escaping her then as she spotted evening had well and truly passed. _No chance for dinner, then._ Her shoulders sunk, and she drew her knees up, mentally debating on what she was meant to do from then on. She could try and find the kitchens. _But that would probably be a rude thing to do – and it wasn’t like she hadn’t gone without dinner before._ She could deal with it. _But what she couldn’t deal with were all the thoughts and worries swirling about in her head like a conspiracy._ Sighing, she reached for the glass of water on her nightstand then, hoping it would cool the fires of her thoughts somewhat. _It did, but it didn’t quell them entirely._ There would be no sleep for her like that.

She slapped her cheeks then, so very desperate to try and unknot all the tangles of thoughts stuck beneath her golden locks. _The same golden locks her father had too._ She was so very glad she had left her hair long. Her mother had always said her father’s people kept their hair long. _If she hadn’t she would have only stuck out like a sore thumb just by being there._

_A night-time walk would help,_ or so she decided then and there. A walk would help everything by getting her out of the room where she had learned it all. _Where those two damning texts sat on one of the chairs in the room._ Texts which described the ‘Fall of Gondolin’ and ‘The House of the Golden Flower’. _Texts which claimed her mother had allegedly been crushed under rubble in the chaos._ Her hands curled into fists at the memory of those words in that script on that paper. _Lies._ The same lies which her father had believed. The same lies which made it so much harder to tell her father the truth. _She hated them, she truly did._

Her breath came in fast pants then, the walls seeming as though they were closing in, brain aching as all the information she had learnt in a _single_ afternoon coming to swirl around in her head. The door slammed shut behind her before she even fully registered what was going on, and then she was breathing in cooler air and hurriedly walking away from her rooms then, all the while feeling a stir of jealousy at how Naruto was sleeping peacefully a few rooms away. _She could hear the snores – she’d checked._ Naruto was always better than her at the things which really mattered. He’d already met his father and held a lovely conversation with him. _Though admittedly his father had been on the way back to the Pure Lands._ Her father wasn’t dead, thankfully _though he couldn’t seem to die and stay dead,_ according to Naruto’s words at least. Part of her was still reeling in disbelief at that, _not that she would have wanted him to stay dead._ Alive was good. _She wouldn’t have known what to do if she had arrived there only to find out her father was dead._ Disappointment wouldn’t have even covered it.

Tears bit at the corners of her eyes at the thought, but she pushed them back. It was no good to think of what _could_ have been. Rather she needed to focus on what was going on and how she was meant to say _‘I am your daughter’_ to a certain golden-haired elf. She wondered what would happen if she just went around without her cloak on. _Going by the elves’ reaction to her a ‘human’ child, she was tempted to say pure insanity._ There hadn’t been an elf child born since this elf lady called Lady Arwen, and she had been born over two-thousand years before, if Naruto had gotten his facts straight. _There hadn’t been an elf child born in centuries._ Sakura’s shoulders sunk at that reminder glaring in her already overworked brain. _They were going to flip and go completely barmy._ Sakura could just _tell_. They were already weird enough over her appearance there, and she was currently thought to be a different species, ergo not something they would be seeing on a regular basis.

She turned the corner sharply then, blinking as she was met with warm… _knees and thighs?_ Sakura went sprawling on her backside, as one did when colliding with a larger being walking the other way, and she could only blink up at Erestor as he regarded her for a split second longer before immediately setting down what he had been carrying to both check she hadn’t been injured and help her back to her feet. “Are you quite alright, Lothien?” he asked her, peering down at her so very intently as he helped set her back on her feet then.

Sakura blinked, hating the tears which escaped the confines of her eyes at the sudden motion. “’m fine,” she grumbled, but it was too late.

“You are crying,” Erestor stated, and Sakura wished the floor would hurry up and swallow her whole. “Where does it hurt?” he demanded, looking her over once again for any visible signs of injury. “Tell me, please,” he added a few moments later after she hadn’t said a single thing in response. Part of her only wished she had ventured to the roofs. _At least there wouldn’t have been any of the sources of her confusion hanging around up there._ Well, unless elves made a habit of climbing up there and hanging around atop tall buildings. _Anything,_ as she was seemingly learning right there and then, _was possible when it came to elves. Even death and coming—and Sakura was no going into that again._

“Did Glorfindel really die and come back?” she found herself asking, _curse her stupid, idiotic mouth._ Really, Sakura wanted the floor to hurry up and swallow her whole.

“So that was why Hwindion wished for those texts…” Erestor murmured, staring at her then, and Sakura took a moment to notice the concern which was still very present in those grey eyes of his. “He did, yes, Lothien. It is in part why he is so renowned amongst my people,” he continued, heedless of the assurance those words gave her that _nobody knew she was in fact an elf._ “Though it is a sad tale. One best not told to children,” Erestor said, looking rather disapproving then. “Is this perhaps why you are crying? You were not hurt by your fall?”

“I would hardly be hurt by something so trivial,” Sakura grumbled, folding her arms at the thought of being hurt by _falling over_ after everything else which had been thrown her way. It was like elves thought children were breakable. When she had actually been six her mother had already been teaching her sword forms and kunai throwing – though admittedly she had gotten some outside help for the latter, given how unfamiliar she had once been with the weapons of a shinobi. _Though she was pretty small still, even if one assumed her to be six-years-old._

Three had been Sasuke’s guesstimate from her size, but then again he was _mean_ so Sakura didn’t like to listen to him. _There was something to be said about Uchiha and underestimating her._ Sasuke had done it when they had been on the same team together, half the time treating her as something which needed to be protected and laughing at her vehement protests otherwise. _He called them adorable and childish_. Itachi had done it when he had come after Naruto in that room the idiot Jiriya had left them in, and his ankles had paid the price. _Fish-man had been laughing the entire time – bastard._ Obito, in guise as Tobi, had his ankle broken from a hit after dodging Hinata’s strike with an ‘Ole’. _And he’d been forever bitter about it until Naruto Naruto’d him the way only Naruto could_. And the less said about Madara the better. _She hope he appreciated how she’d stabbed his ankles and had gone for the family jewels right after because he deserved it._ Hashirama had looked oddly terrified of her after that. Tobirama said it was because she was vicious the way no child should be. Sakura had bit his ankles and choked on the taste of paper and dead body. _The idiots had refused to believe she was seventeen._

Erestor chuckled then, bringing her out from her thoughts of everything Uchiha and why they all deserved to be stabbed in the ankles. His gaze was still concerned. Sakura didn’t quite like it, but figured she could deal with it _because she looked like a child to them._ She was going to have to get used to it and maybe subvert that way of thinking because she was going to be living there for a while to come. Unless they sailed over to that _Aman_ place Naruto had mentioned. “You are a kind child,” he said. “But there is no need for you to be saddened by such a tale, for Glorfindel dwells amongst us more once more.”

Sakura shuffled on her feet, feeling indeterminably awkward _because that was her father’s death they were talking about. And really, wasn’t that something to laugh over – the fact that pretty much all of them had been considered dead at one point._ Though truly it was hardly a laughing matter. _Didn’t mean Sakura didn’t want to throw her head back and cackle maniacally like an Uchiha._

“But should you not be in bed?” Erestor asked, staring at her so very intently once more. _What was it with elves and acting like overbearing mother hens?_ Sakura could only wonder. “It is very late…”

She shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep,” she mumbled, as though it was no big deal – and really, it wasn’t. She had dealt with sleep deprivation and lack of food before. _Her mother had sometimes liked to joke it was why she was so very short._ Sakura didn’t want to think about her mother though. Her death was still too fresh, and she was nowhere near close to getting over the loss of one of the people who had loved her and not cared for the fact she was so very small.

Erestor frowned then, before he apparently came to a decision and picked up his paperwork and scroll once more. “Would you like to walk with me then?” he asked, and Sakura mused on the idea for a few seconds. “Glorfindel will likely join us at some point – you like his company do you not?”

Sakura turned her head to the side sharply, hating the slight blush which crept up into her cheeks. Not that the red colouration was particularly visible under the shade of her hood, but still… “Fine,” she said, wanting to see her father. _It was such a childish want for her to have._ Then again, she had yet to introduce herself to the elf. _If he knew…_ “What did you and Hwindion talk of in the library?” she asked, wanting to derail that train of thought before it reached its destination. _Besides, she had yet to confirm what exactly Naruto had said – and if he had made any grievous errors which needed her to punch him in the gut and cry ‘subtlety, you fool!’_

_That would be an excellent way to wake him up_ , or so Sakura decided.

“Well, as I am fairly sure he mentioned, we spoke at length of Gondolin and its sack… he also asked numerous questions about elves… perhaps after I mentioned Glorfindel’s death,” Erestor remarked, and Sakura felt her shoulders sink somewhat. _Naruto could be subtle at times._ She smiled with that knowledge safe in mind.

* * *

Erestor stared at the child beside him just as he reached the all important filing room where the agricultural reports and crop rotation recommendations for the next season needed to be stored for the meantime. As he had promised little Lothien, a certain golden-haired elf had been there to meet them, as Glorfindel often did at such an hour – what with their chambers there in the main house proper being situated so close together. There hadn’t been a child to roam those halls since Estel had grown there so many years ago, and so Erestor knew little Lothien was a welcome sight for sore eyes. Oftentimes, he found himself wondering if Lothien knew how well she had the older golden-haired elf wrapped around her little finger.

Children were a welcome sight to elves. They set off the familiar instincts all of them had by that age – ones to protect and care for a tiny life which would be so very helpless without them. Indeed, the older elves who dwelt still in Imladris could still remember those darker, older days, and he was chief amongst them. _He could still remember the blood being spilt as elf killed elf all those many years before in an age thankfully, long passed. He still remembered the sight of children being so lost amongst that bloodied world. He still remembered the sight they made – thin, their small bones broken, their skin far too pale as they lay on the ground, eyes sightless and glazed over._ A sight which haunted him to that very day and made his heart ache.

Such a thing would never happen again, not least because he was fairly sure there _were no_ elf children left. _And yet Hwindion’s words, his question, had set something niggling at the very back of his mind._

“Erestor!” Glorfindel greeted then, having finished fussing over the small child who had decided to hug him around the legs all of a sudden, not being able to reach anything higher than that. It made for an adorable sight. _Though,_ Erestor reminded himself, remembering the very audible _crack_ that ball had made when it had sunk into the wall, _Lothien could probably lift him off the ground._ “I see you have decided to come at a more reasonable time,” he continued, and Erestor only grunted and got to work with stowing the files away where they needed to be for others to find.

_Hwindion’s words were bothering him still, and the pieces were slowly starting to click into place as a set of grey eyes and green ones watched him work carefully._

“What brings you out of your rooms at such a late hour?” Glorfindel asked then, turning his attention to the child in the room. _Not that Erestor had expected anything otherwise._ It was only natural. Even the urge to wrap Lothien in blankets and give her a drink of warm milk was hardly unjustifiable after what Hwindion had told him that afternoon. _It had been after he told the other blonde of how elves could die – an odd question, but not entirely unwarranted given what he had seemingly just learnt._

_“So… you die of…” he remembered Hwindion saying, just as his face turned a chalky shade of white._ Erestor remembered being rather concerned over that fact. _Part of him wished he had never asked why – never learnt that there were people out there in Hwindion’s lands who were… interested that way in children, and that Lothien had very nearly been a victim of such._

He felt sick to the stomach.

“It’s fine,” Lothien said, bringing his attention back from those horrid thoughts, and he stared at the child then, focusing back on their conversation. “I hardly want to trouble anyone – besides, I’ve gone without dinner before. I can wait until breakfast!” she declared, heedless of the way Erestor’s stomach curled at that blasé declaration. _As if not having enough food was something she was quite used to._

Glorfindel’s gaze met his own over Lothien’s head, and Erestor nodded then, already venturing on his way to the kitchen to procure some dinner for the little one who had found her way into their care. It didn’t take much to persuade those in the kitchen to rustle something up for little Lothien – all he had to do was mention it was for her, and then they were even more enthusiastic. Dinner procured, he took less than five seconds to figure out where Glorfindel had brought Lothien, eyes narrowing as he made his way to the other elf’s rooms. But his worries – his fears of Lothien being afraid of being left alone with a practical stranger – were abated the second her walked in after a light knock.

“Dinner,” he proclaimed, setting the plate down before the little girl, taking a seat opposite, relaxing somewhat even as Glorfindel handed him a glass of wine. Rather than talking with him as he usually did though, he soon turned his attention back on Lothien who had, in his absence, he noted, been wrapped up in a blanket which soothed his urge to bundle her in more blankets and give her warm milk to drink somewhat.

He stared at Lothien then, taking small sips of his drink then, even as he mulled over what he had learned of Hwindion’s lands and their strange people within who used a strange energy within them. _And Hwindion himself was apparently capable of bending space and time to his will, though his favourite ‘seal’ or so he called them was something which involved switching for some reason._ Erestor tilted his head, smiling as one of his oldest, dearest friends managed to draw out some smiles from Imladris’ youngest guest.

_“Hypothetically,” Hwindion had said, looking at him earnestly with big blue eyes, “Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if you found an elven child in this day and age?”_

Erestor remembered tilting his head in confusion and the smallest seed of suspicion which had been planted in that instant. _“Hypothetically?” he had echoed._

_Hwindion had smiled, wide and guileless, those big blue eyes staring into his own, deadly serious despite the carefree expression on his face. “Hypothetically.”_

Erestor stared then, between the pair in front of him, staring into the green eyes then which Glorfindel had said were a near exact replica of his dead wife’s eyes. He remembered the lock of silky _golden_ hair which had escaped Lothien’s hood the night before. He remembered how Glorfindel’s wife was said to have come from a world with ‘different stars’. He remembered how Hwindion could apparently bend space and time to his will. _How he had demonstrated a ‘light’ seal to prove that his creations worked._ He remembered Hwindion’s _hypothetical_ question, and stared between the pair on the sofa opposite him.

On one hand, telling Glorfindel would probably alleviate the shock and upheaval, or at least minimise it somewhat—

_Nope,_ or so Erestor decided, a wicked smirk hidden behind his wineglass as he lifted it to his lips. _He had a front row seat to the impending drama waiting to unfold – and he was hardly going to take away the child’s right to introduce herself to what had to be her last remaining family member and the joy and sheer chaos that realisation would bring._ Erestor sat back and smiled in a way which had made many a lesser scholar shudder and cower in terror. _This was going to be the best entertainment he’d had in centuries._


	15. the elven library

Gold.

That was all Sakura could see as she opened her eyes, heart beating frantically in her chest at the memories of the nightmare which had just, mercifully left her be. She stared at the gold designs on the bedspread she had been tucked underneath, clothes and all. Though if she wiggled her toes she could tell her boots had been removed. She had been tucked into bed. _Like a child,_ part of her whispered, and her stomach twisted, even as she struggled to try and free herself from the sheets, snagging one around her ankle as she tripped out of the bed and onto the floor with a quiet yelp and a groan of pain.

She wasn’t in her rooms, that was for certain, and the memories slowly flooded back to her of the night previous, her little walk and subsequent bump into Erestor, and then her father after that. Erestor had brought her dinner, they had talked some more, and… _she had totally fallen asleep._ “Lothien!” She lifted her head at the sound of her father’s voice, cloak mercifully still in place. Not that her chakra would let it fall. _Ever._ Her father was seemingly respecting her privacy, and Sakura didn’t know whether or not to be grateful for it. _Because on one hand, he was respecting her wishes, and on the other it would probably give her more motivation to tell him the all-important facts she really, truly needed to._

Her knives were missing though – her mother’s daggers and her pouch of kunai that was, rather than the other ten assorted knives stashed on her person which would only have been found by removing that which she wore. It reassured her that no one had dared to try and change her clothes.

“’m fine,” she grumbled, pushing herself to her feet then, feeling somewhat awkward as her father _who still didn’t know he was her father_ fretted over her like she was some baby bird who had fallen from its nest high in the trees. _She’d had worse. She’d had so much worse._ Tripping out of bed, while embarrassing, was not about to gravely injure her. Elves clearly had little to no experience with how to properly deal with someone of her calibre.

“Are you certain of that?” Glorfindel asked, peering at her closely, and Sakura only waved off the concern as she spied the light flooding through the window then.

“’m fine,” she repeated sullenly, yawning then, hiding it behind her hand. Her father smiled down at her, holding out another set of clothes towards her then, and Sakura blinked blearily. “Huh?” She took them, staring dumbly down at them _because they didn’t look like her original ones which had been washed._ Rather they were some more child-sized clothes. A creamy tunic and some brown pants. _Which coincidentally looked like a miniaturised version of what her father was wearing then._ There was also a fresh change of knickers which Sakura soon hid against her chest. “I’m fine with wearing what I have on,” she said. “I do not want to inconvenience you anymore…”

Her father frowned down at her, as if she had said something strange. “It is of no inconvenience to find clothes for you. Admittedly the undergarments are a rushed job, but other than that the twins have been kind enough to allow us to use the few clothes from the time they were around fifteen which they did not ruin…”

Sakura frowned then, examining the clothes in her hands then. “But these barely look worn!” she declared, staring at the fine clothes being lent to her.

Glorfindel winked then. “’tis why they likely survived,” he said, ushering her off into the bathroom then for her to get changed. “The breakfast bell will ring soon,” her father declared. “We had best arrive swiftly, lest we wish for Hwindion to eat it all…”

Sakura sniggered at that, closing the door and changing clothes as quickly as she could. _She didn’t really have to remove her cloak at all, which gave her a horrible sense of comfort._ It barely took five minutes, if that, and then Sakura was strolling out of the bathroom and grabbing a hold of her father’s hand as he led them from his quarters to the halls where they always ate breakfast. Though Glorfindel said that sometimes those who had their quarters in the residential distinct of Imladris sometimes opted to prepare their meals at home – only occasionally joining the others in the communal halls where they all ate together. It sounded like otherwise the halls would be more full than they usually were. _Which would have meant more attention on her, what with her literally being the only child there._

The twins, Elladan and Elrohir, were still regrettably absent when they arrived, but two familiar faces waved them over, and Sakura could only blink as she spied the hobbits seated close by. The blonde one she thought was called… _Perry?_ Sakura frowned. It didn’t sound quite right. _Pippin. That was it._ Pippin waved at her as she approached, and Sakura waved back, even as she ran towards Naruto then.

“Can we visit the library today?” she asked, seating herself down next to her dear friend – Erestor sitting opposite them, Glorfindel sandwiching her between her friend and him. “Pretty please?” she tried, glancing between Erestor and Naruto.

“I do not see why that would be a problem,” Glorfindel said.

Erestor only smiled, staring at her then. “It is of no issue, Lothien,” he replied then, and with that settled and decided upon, Sakura dug into her meal. _There were so many different types of bread, and Sakura had found a new favourite food living there with the elves, even if she had only been there a short while._ They didn’t seem to have much rice, but Sakura found she didn’t mind that.

“By the way,” she mumbled then, halfway through her croissant. “Where are my knives?” she asked, glancing at her father then – who beamed as though there was nothing wrong with having disarmed her as such. Sakura really wondered _how_ she had failed to notice being stripped of her weaponry. _Failure of a shinobi._

“Back in my rooms,” her father answered with a signature sunny smile which could probably rival Naruto’s. “We can go and fetch them if you really feel so unsafe in these halls, but it would delay going to the library which you seem to be so very eager to explore…”

Sakura scowled at that, polishing off her croissant then, licking her fingertips clean, freezing then as she spotted Erestor staring at her. _He looked like he was about to start cooing at her._ Her hands dropped back into her lap in an instant, legs swinging back and forth as she waited for her father and the final one of their fair-haired trio to finish. It didn’t take all that long surprisingly enough, what with Naruto’s penchant for eating more and more, and then they were en-route to the library.

Which was of course about the time Naruto decided to start a conversation.

“So,” Naruto began, smiling at Erestor, “shall we pick up where we left off yesterday?” he asked, and Sakura felt her imaginary hackles rise as her head swivelled around, eyes locking on that _too wide_ grin on Naruto’s face. _He knew exactly what he was doing. Why was she best friends with him again?_ Sometimes Sakura really wondered about that, ignoring the surge of fondness which rose at the sight of that familiar, cheeky grin.

“You were going on about this ‘graduation’ from this ‘academy’ of yours…” Erestor supplied, and Sakura felt her eyes narrow into little slits. “I am curious as to both yours and Lothien’s histories,” he said, grey eyes flickering onto her ever so briefly. Sakura felt something like ice trickle down her spine then, but she shook her head and opted to monitor the situation, what with how both adult elves were watching Naruto curiously. Her fingers twitched, the urge to shut Naruto up _because she had a really bad feeling about where this was about to go rising._ She hadn’t managed to wake him up with a punch to the gut and a reminder of _‘subtlety you absolute fool’_ so she wasn’t sure if Naruto had been reminded enough of what exactly was at stake there. Her eyes flickered up to her father then – the same father whose hand she was randomly holding. _She blamed the elves for the automatic hand holding._ She hadn’t held anyone’s hand like that in _ages_ therefore it had to be the elves’ fault.

“Well our team we graduated on was me, Lothien, and our other friend called _Sasuke_ – I’m not sure what his name would be translated into this language, because Lothien’s mother never translated it or gave him a name like she did for me,” Naruto babbled, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

“You translated your names?” Erestor asked then, looking oh so very curious right then and there at the prospect of _their_ language.

Naruto hummed and nodded. “Though Lothien was the name this one here was given because her father chose it out before they had to separate… Lothien’s mother was the one who gave me the name Hwindion after me and Lothien became joined at the hip when we were younger.”

“Younger?” Her father spoke up then, and Sakura felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end as her best friend opened his big mouth. “You almost make it sound as if you both grew up together…”

“Well, obviously we did – we’re the same—” Sakura charged forwards, wrapping her arms around Naruto’s legs and lifting him, ignoring the yelp Naruto made, even as she hurried over to the conveniently placed empty window and shoved him out of it.

Erestor grabbed her then, hauling her back with one arm. “We are on the third floor, Lothien!” he declared _like that was something she didn’t already know._ Her father stared between her and the window, looking absolutely horrified.

Sakura stared at him, confused. “And?”

The brunette looked at her like _she was the crazy one._ “You threw your friend out of a third-storey window!” he yelled, and Sakura could only stand there and stare at him, oddly baffled by the reaction.

She shrugged. “It wasn’t like you had a seventh floor to throw him out of,” she muttered. _Three-storeys was plenty of time to flip over and land correctly, even for Naruto._ Sakura didn’t know why the pair of them seemed to think Naruto incompetent. _Even if he messed up the landing, he had fast healing to compensate._

“You have thrown him out from higher?” Erestor demanded, hands on her small shoulders, grip almost shaking her.

“Erestor, you are hurting her,” Glorfindel said, and the other elf released his grasp somewhat, though they both still stared down at her in concern and fear. “I do not think she… realises what she has done…”

“But Lothien’s right, you know?” Naruto chimed in, swinging back in through the window then, and Sakura could only frown at the baffled looks on their faces at the sight of him. _It was like they had thought he couldn’t use his chakra—oh, wait. Elves didn’t have chakra._ Sakura blinked, brow furrowing somewhat as she tried to process their reactions. _It probably wasn’t normal to throw people out of windows, more so when one didn’t have chakra involved, but then again she’d had Tsunade as a big influence in her life for a good while._ Sakura supposed that might have distorted her perceptions just a little bit when it came to punting people out of windows and through walls. _The latter tended to hurt more because hello, wall_. “In fact, she’s even better than me when it comes to jumping from high buildings!”

Sakura felt her eye twitch as Glorfindel and Erestor turned their horrified gazes back on her. _Naruto and his big mouth._ She scowled at the reminder and at her friends lacking social-cultural clash awareness.

Predictably, by that point in time, she soon found herself seated in the library with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a glass of milk had been procured from somewhere which she was sipping on. She wondered what sort of weird obsession the elves all had with wrapping her in blankets and giving her milk to drink. _Child,_ part of her chimed then, and she set her empty glass to one side, ready to learn whatever she could before she worked up the courage to reveal herself to her father.

“There’s something called early graduation where we come from,” Naruto was saying then, heedless to the darkening expression on both of their companion’s faces as they sat around one of the tables in the library dedicated for scholars or others to read texts upon and discuss them or something or another.

“Forgive me, if I am getting anything wrong,” Erestor said, having lost most of the good cheer he had that morning. “But you make it sound as if your village sends _children_ out to war…”

“They do though?” Naruto said. “But that’s generally from a civilian’s point of view, because technically we’re all classed as adults once we’ve graduated from the academy by law at least – our teacher graduated when he was, like, five-years-old but that was partially because a war was going on…”

Sakura pulled her blanket further around herself, figuring she couldn’t really stop Naruto from telling them that much. _It might make her seem slightly less strange, what with how that was their culture which really didn’t seem all that strange to her._ Her father wrapped an arm around her then, and Sakura saw no point in not using him as something to lean her head against as she let Naruto tell them all snippets about their world.

“So you and Lothien are both considered to be _adults,_ ” Erestor declared, looking ever so sceptically at her then. “And you are both mercenaries… and you have both participated in _war_ … that sums up about everything I have learnt of your pasts,” he remarked, frowning and looking ever so pensive as his gaze seemed to dart between her and her father. Sakura took reassurance in the fact that her hood was casting her face in shadow, meaning there were no visible similarities between her and her father.

“Lothien should not have had to participate in _war_ ,” her father said, sounding oddly outraged for some reason. _Sakura supposed those of her size tended to be far more squishy and defenceless without chakra._ “Children are meant to be protected,” Glorfindel said, tensing beneath her then as she rested her head against him. _He was oddly comfy to lean against._

“But without Lothien we wouldn’t have won,” Naruto said blankly, and Sakura felt her eyes narrow as she remembered how she was only thought to have been in the medical tents doing whatever small children without chakra could do. _Not that she would ever admit to putting a woman’s intestines back into the place in the body they were meant to be._

“Even if she was helping in the medical tents,” her father spoke, making it evident how much he _disapproved_ of everything Naruto was talking about. “She—”

“What are you talking about?” Naruto asked, staring at her father in confusion while Sakura pondered on how her father seemed to think she was small and breakable despite the fact she had nearly _accidentally_ taken Elrohir’s head off with a simple dodging game. _Elves were weird—_ “Me and Sasuke only managed to get the drop on the last, strongest enemy because Lothien punched her—”

Her hand landed on the table, escaping her cocoon of blankets as she vaulted over the table, planting a foot in Naruto’s gut. _It was politer and safer than going for the throat, well unless she went for the brief instant of strangulation approach with her hands._ Naruto fell back on his chair with a loud oof, and silence reigned for a good few seconds before Erestor opened his mouth.

“Lothien, it is rather rude to attack your friends,” Erestor said, voice adopting that scolding tone which Sakura thought was mainly used for children. _You are one,_ part of her whispered, and she gritted her teeth at that.

“There was a bug!” she exclaimed, that being the first excuse she had popping into her mind, and she made her eyes go wide and guileless as she turned to look at Erestor from where she stood, perched on the edge of Naruto’s overturned chair. “Hwindion hates bugs!”

“Did you need to kick him in the gut?” her father asked, making his way around the table, concern on his face which was quickly abated as Naruto waved at him merrily from where he still sat on the upended chair.

Sakura shrugged. “Collateral damage.”

The lunch bell rang right then, the soft sound reaching them through the open window, and Sakura ducked under the grabby hands which reached for her, courtesy of her father, tucking into a roll and popping back up to her feet at the edge of the shelf stack. _She didn’t need to be carried or led around all the time – and she knew the way back from the library to the hall by that point._ “We should be off to lunch,” Erestor said then, and Naruto climbed to his feet, and then they were on their—

“Hwindion!” Glorfindel cried, just as the familiar sound of a body hitting the ground reached her ears.

Sakura turned on her heel, eyes wide, breath caught in her throat as she caught sight of her best friend caught in her father’s arms before he could hit the floor. Her feet were already moving, bringing her over to where he lay, part of her wanting to laugh at the sight of Naruto being held in a princess carry, the majority of her, though, concerned over her friend’s condition. _His face looked flushed, and his eyes were closed – a far cry from the way they had been open and sparkling with life only moments before._ The change was jarring, and fear bubbled in her belly.

“The same as before,” her father muttered then, frowning down at Naruto’s unconscious form. “I will bring him to the Halls of Healing,” he said, smiling faintly at her and Erestor. “You should go and have your lunch.”


	16. the halls of healing

She ate the bare minimum for lunch, too worried over what was going on with Naruto to eat any more than she had. Then she was off with a vague idea of where the Halls of Healing were, little feet pounding against the ground as she hurried to get over to where Naruto was, Erestor following her all the while. The _ellon,_ as male elves were called, was oddly concerned with ensuring she knew where she was going, despite their probably being many better things he could be doing. Sakura didn’t particularly mind, because otherwise, should she have gotten lost, she would have been forced to ask one of the elves around her, and they tended to look bemused by her appearance there and on the verge of cooing whenever she did something. _She supposed that was how age-old beings who didn’t die of old age got when they hadn’t seen a child for a long while._ Sakura wondered how long exactly they had to have been bereft of children. Half of her was tempted to say a long while, but the other half of her reminded that it would only make her seem that much more strange.

Sakura swallowed at the thought, following Erestor’s direction of, “Left here, Lothien.” Her face was set into a frown, expression so very serious as she entered what had to be the Halls of Healing then, ready to figure out what exactly was wrong with Naruto then and there. It couldn’t be the _Black Breath_. After all, she had been exposed to exploding wraiths twice, and she hadn’t been as badly affected. Though admittedly she was _from_ that world technically through her father’s blood. _Plus there was the fact she wasn’t sure of how to treat the injuries of that world – it had taken for her father to arrive in all his golden, shining glory before she had begun to feel better._ Her shoulders sunk at the thought of _not being able to help._ Though speaking of her father—

“Erestor! Lothien!” her father cried in greeting, smiling then, even as Sakura bustled past him and through the door he had just exited from.

“Hwindion!” she called, even as Glorfindel re-entered the room, Erestor following close behind. “Will Hwindion be alright?” she demanded, busying herself with climbing up to her best friend’s side, and staring down at him so very intently as he lay there, flushed face and relatively unmoving besides the constant rise and fall of his chest.

“He is in no danger, Lothien,” her father said kindly, smiling down at her then, even as he patted her head. _Sakura allowed it because he was her father._ That was totally the only reason. _Child,_ part of her whispered snidely. “Though the healers are still attempting to figure out exactly what caused his collapse earlier,” he added, a slight frown appearing on his brow then.

Her own brow crinkled then in thought, and she reached for Naruto’s arm then, automatically checking him over with a small application of chakra, eyes widening as she realised exactly what was wrong with him. _Chakra exhaustion._ His chakra levels were dangerously low. A fact which made Sakura stare down at Naruto in confusion. Naruto was an _Uzumaki_ and they didn’t tend to get chakra exhaustion unless something major had happened. Naruto had only been reading in the library – he hadn’t used any chakra to Sakura’s knowledge.

“Perhaps after Lord Elrond has finished tending to the halfling?” Erestor spoke then, grey eyes surveying the scene before him then. “He, perhaps, will have a better grasp of what ails Hwindion here…”

Sakura already knew what was wrong with him though. She just didn’t quite know how to fix it – well, she knew how to fix it and get Naruto up and about, but she didn’t know how to stop the root cause of the problem. She didn’t know _how_ his chakra levels had become so very low. “I see,” Sakura mumbled then, doing her best not to look worried, but elves apparently saw through every facial expression she attempted to pull and her father patted her head.

“My friend, Elrond, is an excellent healer,” her father said then, and the words made her feel oddly warm and fuzzy inside, despite how unnecessary they were. _She could cure Naruto at least temporarily after they had gone – because they needed to be alone for when she questioned Naruto as to why exactly he kept collapsing from what had to be chakra exhaustion._ “Worry not, your own friend will be in good hands.”

She hummed in acknowledgement.

“Do you wish to venture back to the library yet? Or would you like to go and have some more lunch?” Glorfindel asked. “Erestor tells me you did not eat much, perhaps out of worry for your friend – but as you can see, he is in no danger…”

Sakura shook her head then. “Want to stay here,” she declared, staring resolutely between the two for a few minutes before Erestor came to the wise decision to leave her be there.

“We will return or send someone once the dinner bell rings,” Erestor informed her kindly. “Should you wish to find either of us sooner, then you only need ask…”

Her father left with another backward glance at her small form as she sat on the bed beside her best friend, and then the blissful silence of the room consumed her, and Sakura readied her chakra for a transfusion. _Though it was only a stopgap and she couldn’t keep doing it otherwise Naruto’s chakra would be forever altered by her own and Tsunade had drilled in the warnings about such a thing._ They would need to combat the problem from the source.

Gritting her teeth, Sakura placed her hands over his chest then, frowning as she began the painstaking task, praying that no nosy, well-meaning elf decided to break her concentration or otherwise encourage her to leave Naruto’s side in order to play. It seemed like something they might do, what with them being fooled into thinking she was a child. Chakra thrummed through her hands and fingers, light slowly beginning to seep from the room as the sun’s light moved, but Sakura kept on, sitting back only at what time had to be a very late afternoon. As if to prove her point, the dinner bell rang out then, and Sakura was greeted by the door opening then.

Blinking at the sudden, new influx of light, Sakura stared at the silhouettes framed in the doorway then. “Lothien!” her father called in greeting, smiling merrily at her then, and the smell of food made her perk up as her stomach growled in hunger. “It would seem we have good timing,” he said, making it evident that he had heard the small sound. Sakura felt her cheeks redden, and she ducked her head into her knees.

At least until Erestor held out a plateful of that sliced, herby, warm bread she loved, and then she was grabbing it out of his hands, ignoring the amused hum which rumbled from the older elf. “There is plenty to go around,” Erestor remarked, smiling wryly down at her then. Sakura paused momentarily in her eating, halfway through a slice before she shrugged and continued eating, letting the others add other bits and pieces of food to her plate to try _because damn elven cooking was good._ Sakura tilted her head. _But that probably had something to do with the fact they lived for ages and could perfect their crafts so._

A groan from behind her had them all pausing – Sakura in the midst of her eating, the other two in the midst of their conversation. “Hwindion!” Sakura cried, relief seeping through her as Naruto sat up, groggy and bleary-eyed as he blinked at them. “You’re awake!”

“Mmhmm,” Naruto mumbled, rubbing at his eyes.

“How do you feel?” Erestor asked then, staring at her companion. “Do you wish for me to fetch someone more skilled in the healing arts?”

Naruto shook his head at that, nose twitching then as he lifted his arms. “Food,” he declared, making grabby hands, and Sakura pulled her plate away even as Glorfindel handed Hwindion some dinner on another plate. “Thanks,” her friend said quickly, before he lost himself to his food. Sakura merely shrugged before continuing on with her own dinner, ignoring the scene behind her. _Naruto had missed lunch – of course he was so very hungry_.

* * *

Silence reigned in the room long after Glorfindel and Erestor had headed off to the ‘Hall of Fire’ or whatever it was called, and Sakura only folded her arms and scowled at Naruto even as her friend shifted awkwardly on his bed. “Hwindion,” she grumbled, glaring at him then. “You have five seconds to tell me what you know about what’s wrong with you.”

Naruto looked away, telling of the fact he didn’t want to say a word, and Sakura felt the urge to throttle him rise as he remained silent. _Chakra exhaustion could kill,_ and he wasn’t telling her what he knew of _why_ he had ended up in such a situation despite not having used much chakra.

“What _is_ it?” she demanded, stressing each and every word. “Chakra exhaustion isn’t a laughing matter, you idiot!” She walked up the bed until she was standing over him then, hands curling in the lapels of his shirt then. “You could die from this, you know!”

Naruto gritted his teeth, sighing then. “I don’t want to distract you from your dad,” he said, staring at her then, blue eyes pleading with her to let it go and not dig any deeper.

“Consider me distracted by your monumental stupidity,” Sakura snapped, folding her arms then. “I am _not_ moving until you tell me what’s wrong with you,” she declared, sitting with a huff on her friend’s legs. “So, can we skip past the puppy-dog eyes you know won’t work when it comes to medical situations and the meaningless time wasted and simply get to the point where you tell me what exactly is going on with you?”

Blue eyes narrowed then, looking at her sharply. “You’re just using me as an excuse,” Naruto stated, and Sakura felt her jaw drop as she blinked in confusion. “We’ve been here for _days_ Lothien, _days_ , and we met your dad before we even arrived here. You’ve had days to tell him who you are…”

“Because I wanted to make sure I had all my facts right!” she hissed, glaring at her best friend then. “I’m not _you_ , I don’t run off into situations willy-nilly!”

“So why haven’t you told your father yet?” he asked. “I told you everything you needed to know about the Fall of Gondolin and your father, and yet your dithering here, fussing over me,” Naruto said, and Sakura felt fear curl in her belly then, part of her screaming that her best friend was annoyingly correct. _But all the information she had gathered was important…_

“What the hell am I supposed to do?” she nearly screamed, part of her wanting to flail on her back and scream at the sky. _Child._ Sakura gritted her teeth. “Go up to him, whip my hood back and be like ‘Hi Dad, I know you think I died in the womb thousands of years and have done your grieving and come to that all important acceptance, but hey, your wife is still dead but I’m all good and alive!’”

“You could,” Naruto pointed out.

“That was sarcasm!” Sakura yelled, hands going to claw at her golden locks beneath her hood. “And don’t make this about me all of a sudden,” she said, jabbing a finger between his eyes, watching as he went cross-eyed as he tried to focus on it as she pointed at him rather forcefully. “We are here, in the Halls of _Healing_ because you fainted. You fainted like a damned princess and my father caught you and carried you here like one,” she spoke, still jabbing her finger at him, trying to get a point across. “This is serious, Hwindion! I am not about to get all cosy with my father while you could be dying…”

“Then how about you introduce yourself to your father and then I go home?” Naruto offered then, and something in Sakura’s gut twisted like a knife had been stabbed in and twisted. “That would solve everything,” he said, and her stomach dropped to her toes.

She blinked, the realisation coming to her then. It wasn’t the sudden snap of all the puzzle pieces being put into place as one, but more like the final piece of a puzzle she had been working out for many months sliding ever so neatly into place. “This…” she mumbled, feeling like the world was crumbling out from beneath her feet then and there. “This is where we part ways, isn’t it?” she wondered aloud, stumbling back from her friend, the realisation making her feel heavy. _Because she was an elf, and Naruto was a human. But Naruto could be like her mother if he stayed there—_ “It’s Kurama, isn’t it?” she distantly heard herself ask as she sat down so very suddenly, legs feeling as though they could support her no longer.

Naruto smiled, and Sakura pushed back the tears. She didn’t need them right then and there. “Something here is interfering with my connection to him, meaning my chakra isn’t… working, I think, as it should?”

“Because your body relies on Kurama’s chakra by this point, and you’re experiencing a lack of it, like a patchy signal on those communicators we sometimes use when we’re on missions,” Sakura muttered, brain leaping to conclusions and confusing metaphors, and she buried her head in her hands then, wondering what exactly she was supposed to do. “Well, I guess we can go back and forth…”

A heavy, exasperated sigh rent the air, and Sakura felt her head snap up, eyes locking on Naruto then as he stared at her with something which could only be described as fond exasperation. “You belong _here,_ Lothien,” Naruto said so plainly then. “I do not… and I have a feeling you get that too.” He paused then, taking a few breaths before he spoke again. “I think I’ve always known this day would come…”

Sakura snorted. “Look at you being all dramatic…” she muttered, heart pounding in her chest, nerves on fire at where the conversation was going. _She didn’t like it one bit._

“I always said I was going to be Hokage… and you always said you wanted to find your father… there should have been enough of a clue in our dreams that our paths wouldn’t align at some point,” Naruto said, smiling then. “I think I’ll be able to make it back for short visits though from time to time,” he declared, grin widening. “You know… to check up how you’re doing with your father and the rest of your _species_.”

“You can stay for a while longer though, can’t you?” Sakura asked, stomach twisting at the thought of being there _without_ Naruto. _Without the only person who had been at her side for longer than a matter of days._ “I mean… I’ve known elves for a matter of days, Hwindion! Besides, you’ll need to work out a seal to return home—”

Naruto lifted a slip of sealing paper – two slips, she realised belatedly. “Already figured it out – why do you think it took me a little while longer than usual to find you after we first arrived?” he asked, smiling then, and something twitched in the back of her head at that smile. _A fox’s grin._ And foxes were mischievous little blighters.

“Oh,” Sakura mumbled blankly, barely even reacting as Naruto pried her cloak off her, slapping a seal tag to her chest while she was standing there like a gormless moron.

“The elves are going to take care of you – I already asked a _hypothetical_ question about what they would do if they found an elven child in this day and age, and you can tell by the reactions of the elves who all saw you,” Naruto babbled, and Sakura could only blink, numbly realising that she and Naruto _couldn’t_ stay together forever. She was an _elf_ and he was _human_.

“Wait,” she hissed, coming back to her senses for a split second, “when you say _hypothetical_ question…” she trailed off, looking at her best friend so very sceptically.

“Oh I just asked that Erestor guy, ‘Hypothetically speaking, what would you do if you found an elven child in this day and age?’” Naruto repeated, and Sakura barely avoided the urge to put her head in her hands and scream her frustrations.

“SUBTLETY, YOU FOOL!” Sakura shrieked, waving her hands around. “I told you to be subtle! That is not subtle!”

Naruto grinned – that foxy grin which said _he’d planned this_ and Sakura could only seethe. “Lothien, you _know_ subtlety isn’t my strongest area of expertise,” he said. “Besides, I want you to meet your father, and so I laid some groundwork… casually aroused some suspicions…”

“Casually?” Sakura hissed, knowing that if she was a cat her hair would be all puffed up in her rage. “You practically dropped that on them like a lead weight on their feet! Or like smacking them around the face with a sheathed katana! How could they not notice that?”

His grin widened. “I don’t do things by halves,” he said, and there was a war of anger and irredeemable fondness for her best friend’s actions, because that was undeniably a _Naruto_ thing to do. “And which is why we’re separating ways tonight – it’s safest and best for both of us,” he said, and Sakura could only blink, thoughts of _don’t go, don’t leave_ swirling within her, but her mouth was frozen. “It will give you the kick you need to introduce yourself to your father, I won’t collapse anymore, and then I can come back and see how you’re doing in a little while…”

“Tonight?” she echoed blankly, part of her wondering how it would be without Naruto always at her side. They had been joined at the hip for so long. “But—”

“Good luck, Lothien,” Naruto declared, and then the seal he had attached to himself began to glow and he vanished then in a sharp crack of air, and Sakura was left there, dumbfounded, heart aching, and more than a little confused and hurt.

Of course, _that_ was when the seal on her chest lit up in a flash of light.

Sakura blinked, and then the world around her shifted in a blur of colour and nausea, and she stared up at the suddenly rather close ceiling. _Why was it made of wood?_ Her ears picked up the sounds of conversation, and Sakura could only blink once more as she registered the fact that _wait, that wasn’t a ceiling._ Rather it was a table. _Why was she under a table?_

Sakura blamed Naruto, no matter how much that thought burned at her chest because Naruto had gone and run off back home. _Admittedly because otherwise he would continue to suffer on and off from chakra exhaustion until it killed him,_ but still…

Tears bit at the corners of her eyes, even as she pulled herself up into a seated position, muttering swearwords under her breath at the sight of one of Naruto’s favourite seals. _A gods-damned switching seal._ When Naruto had planted the counter seal, Sakura wasn’t entirely certain, but that didn’t change the fact she was now in the middle of what looked like a hall with a few benches and chairs, and a fireplace crackling merrily off to one side— _wait, wasn’t that her father?_ Sakura swallowed, vaguely remembering her father and Erestor saying they were going to some fiery place before they had left her and Naruto alone.

_Naruto had totally planned this._

Part of her wondered if Erestor was in on it, eyes narrowing suspiciously on the brown-haired ellon, but the rest of her way far too busy trying to work out a way to run out of the hall without catching too much attention. Frowning, she reached to pull her hood down, freezing when she only grabbed at golden hair.

_Naruto had taken her cloak,_ she remembered dully. _He had so totally planned this… and he was no longer around for her to enact vengeance upon…_


	17. the drunken daughter

Her eyes darted around the room, heart in her throat as she looked around, frantically searching for a way out of the situation Naruto had dumped her in without so much as a _by your leave._ The clatter and murmur of people talking, moving around, and the clinking of glasses and tankards. _It probably wasn’t meant to be a place for children, not that the elves had any to worry about. Well, aside from her,_ or so Sakura mused bitterly, fear swirling in her gut _because how was she supposed to go up to her father when there were so many others surrounding him? How was she meant to go up to him full stop?_

Noise came from directly above then, legs appearing in view, and Sakura prayed they didn’t accidentally kick her then. _Didn’t accidentally notice her existence right then and there when she was in no state or shape to be ousted for the baby elf that she was._ Everything was far too loud, and she had no idea _how_ to find the strength to crawl out from under the table. She didn’t know if she wanted to. _Maybe she could stay there quietly, curled up into a ball until people left?_

_Coward._ Her stomach felt like it was at sea, eyes darting towards her father and to the legs seated close by to her. Part of her wished they would hurry up and leave because she was far too shy to come out and introduce herself in front of so many other people. Tears filled her eyes, hot and heavy, and she wished she had more courage—

The table above her shook, a smattering of curses and exclamations combined with merry laughter as another voice sounded, a conversation she couldn’t bring herself to listen to starting as she dwelled in her thoughts. A light clink made her look to the side, eyes fixing on the tankard which had been placed on the bench thanks to whatever chaos was going on atop the table above her head. Her body moved almost on autopilot as the legs that tankard had to belong to shifted to stand then, and she swiped the mug from its position on the bench. A sniff confirmed the contents were alcoholic – _she was a student of Tsunade, of course she could tell what drinks contained alcohol_ – and Sakura tilted her head then as an odd sort of calmness overtook her then. She came to a decision right there and then.

That being she was far too sober to deal with things, as Tsunade had oftentimes said, and she took a swig then, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at the taste. _She had never been particularly fond of alcohol, but Tsunade had called it liquid courage – which was what she sorely needed right then and there._ Plus the less sensible part of her just wanted to forget the day which had just passed. _And she was seventeen going on eighteen, legally an adult in the eyes of Konoha, even for a civilian… that was old enough to drink,_ or so she thought to herself as she sat there, under a table. Though probably not for much longer because there was a culture difference between there and the Elemental Nations, and she had to be hilariously younger than all the rest of her kinfolk there.

She took another sip then, wondering where everything had started snowballing and why she couldn’t muster the courage to greet her father and introduce herself. _She was no hero, not like him. Rather, shinobi were oftentimes called the exact opposite: monsters._ Her shoulders sunk, and she took a bigger gulp, musing on how it must have been good sake or whatever alcoholic drink they had in those lands seeing as she was already feeling something of a buzz. _Or she was just a complete and utter lightweight._ She had a feeling it was probably the latter, or perhaps a mix of both.

“Where is my drink?” a voice came then, and Sakura only sniggered softly, utterly giddy at the thought of her successful theft of the alcohol she sorely needed. _People had always looked at her strangely whenever she had occasionally went out for a drink with some of the rest of the Rookie Nine_. “What did you two do with my drink?”

“We did not touch it,” another voice came, and Sakura continued to laugh at that. _Pulling pranks, just like old times…_ Her laughter trickled away as solemnity crashed down upon her then, and she took another swig of what was now _her alcohol because gods knew she needed it to cope_. Sakura ignored the voice telling her that _alcohol wasn’t a valid coping strategy._ She was definitely Tsunade’s student through and through. Though she didn’t think she liked alcohol as much as her old master.

“Child…” the voice startled her out of her daydreams and reminiscing, and Sakura turned her head, blearily meeting the pair of grey eyes which peered at her curiously from where his head was – the ellon having peered under the table in hopes of finding his drink, minor annoyance and slight worry seeping into that gaze.

Sakura blinked, blandly meeting that gaze, revelling in the odd lack of fear she felt right then and there. “’sup?” she slurred, sniggering again at the oddly gormless expression on his face as he stared at her, eyes darting between the drink _she really needed_ and her own face. _He looked terribly confused._ Sakura thought such an expression suited him.

“Child, that is not for you,” the ellon stated, staring at her severely then, expression changing into one of severe disapproval. “Give that here,” he ordered, and Sakura only sipped from her drink again. _It was hers._

“Can’t make me,” she muttered, feeling terribly smug as she clung to the tankard like it was a lifeline, peering at the other elf over the rim.

“Cúthon?” a voice came from above then, and the brown-haired ellon sat back up abruptly, getting up then, and Sakura wondered momentarily if she had scared him off. A sigh escaped her, low and long, and then there was a far more familiar voice sounding. Cúthon, she realised belatedly, had gone over to her father for one reason or another, and had brought Erestor along for the ride.

Sakura giggled. _Alcohol really worked a charm._

“If you are going to bring this child to the Hall of Fire, then as her appointed minders for the duration of her stay, please keep an eye on her,” Cúthon said, even as Erestor plucked her out from underneath the table. “She stole my drink – of the alcoholic kind.” She winced at the influx of light – she had liked the shadows under the table – and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she felt the eyes of her father set upon her. Those grey eyes were drinking in her tiny little form, shifting up and down for a short while before he visibly startled. _He had seen her ears,_ she noted, feeling oddly detached from the situation, even as hysterical giggles bubbled up in her throat. _As had Cúthon,_ she noted at the sudden intake of air on Erestor’s other side. “But… I thought the child was mortal…” Cúthon mumbled, and Sakura felt the number of stares on her increase all of a sudden, conversation petering out as the elves slowly realised they had an _elven_ child in their midst.

They were staring, and it was making her anxious, nervous, and made her wish she hadn’t come there – that Naruto hadn’t shunted her into the middle of a hall filled with _her_ people. There were far too many of those. _Far too many stares._ She wanted them to stop. She wanted her father to know who she was. She wanted Naruto to be there at her side, supporting her. _But none of that happened._

Sakura burst into tears.

* * *

Erestor had, wisely, opted to carry her out of the Hall of Fire and into a quieter room as soon as the waterworks had begun. Glorfindel followed in his wake, a silent shadow, and Sakura thought he looked as though he might have been hit over the head with something heavy and hard as he stumbled along behind them. She hadn’t seen him stumble before, or look anything other than composed and graceful. _Such was the nature of her kin,_ or so she had mused. He was staring at her all the while, and she could only shift in Erestor’s arms, not daring to look at her father to see if he was ashamed of her or didn’t want her as such. _She didn’t even know if he had put two and two together yet._

She was deposited onto a sofa, and she sat then, pulling her knees to her chest, and staring at her father then as he seated himself opposite her, staring at her still. Sakura squirmed, heart beating in her chest like the beats of a hummingbird’s winds. _She was finally mostly alone with her father, and she needed to open up and tell him who she was…_

Her stomach twisted, and her gaze turned to Erestor then, eyes wide and pleading for something she didn’t know. She hiccupped, the taste of alcohol on her tongue, and she curled her fingers and toes, remembering how she had wanted to gain some form of courage. _The worst that would happen would be that her father didn’t want anything to do with her… and then she would have to wait for Naruto to reappear before she could go home._ She stared at her feet, feeling giddy and sick the longer the tense silence in the room continued.

“Very well,” Erestor said, sighing then. “I will see myself out. Clearly you both need to have a _family_ conversation without me.”

Her heart leapt at that, lips parting then, even as Erestor went over to the door, walking out and pulling it shut behind him then, leaving them in that stone cold silence. Sakura stared up at her father, lips trembling, and her father stared back at her, still looking as though he had been clobbered over the head by something. Sakura didn’t think the dumbstruck expression suited him. _So she had best change that, hadn’t she?_

Fingers dug into the fabric of the trousers she wore. “Mother did not die when the city fell,” she said, hiccupping every now and then as she spoke, the words escaping her like the waters from a fountain. “She… Uh, she went back to her home – you know, the place with different stars… That was how she escaped…” Sakura trailed off, heart beating ever so fast, and she buried her face in her knees then, wishing there was a guidebook on how to introduce herself to one’s father when they thought they were dead, and that she had read it. That would have made things so much simpler, but alas…

“That does not explain how you are a child still,” Glorfindel murmured. “My wife became pregnant thousands of years ago… even if she managed to survive…” he continued, still looking terribly starstruck, eyes fixed on the space between them then, giving her some much needed relief from that confused, hope-torn, almost terrified stare which cut into her so and made her feel as though she were doing something terrible by turning his world on its head.

Sakura swallowed, the world spinning somewhat as she sat there. “Mother came from a different world… the timelines do not seem to have matched up,” she said blandly, praying her father would believe her as to her parentage. _Otherwise she didn’t know what else she could do to convince him._ “Is that really so hard to believe? That time does not appear to run linear between these two worlds?” she asked, kicking her feet back and forth then, waiting with baited breath for his reaction.

Her father buried his head in his hands, sucking in a sharp breath then. Sakura thought it might have been choked with tears.

“Mother always said I took more after you,” Sakura blithely forged on, something giving her the strength to continue talking. _Or maybe she was babbling out of fear of being rejected?_ She had always been rejected in some way or form, simply because she was so strange to those of the Elemental Nations. She had thought that would change when she arrived there. _It hadn’t, and she was still very much an outlier in every respect._ “Apart from my eyes… She told me some stories about you too…” she continued, slowly becoming aware of the fact that she was indeed babbling out of nervousness. “Though I understand if you’re ashamed and do not want to acknowledge me… I’m not as good as you… though I will have to wait here until Hwindion returns before I can get out of your sight…”

“No.” The word cut through the silence, and Sakura looked up from the ground, flinching back as she met those grey eyes.

Her shoulders sunk, tears filling her eyes because _he didn’t want her._ “Oh,” she mumbled, aware that some part of her had thought he _would_ accept her for some strange reason which probably would make no sense if she thought over it again. “I see—”

“I will not—I would never reject you… How could you think I would be so cruel and heartless as to abandon my own child…?” he asked of her then, and her fingers crinkled in the fabric of her trousers then, tears leaking down her cheeks. Sakura only needed to look at his face to find matching tears. _She didn’t think they suited him, and she felt terrible for making him cry._

“Sorry,” she whispered, hunching down then, shame filling the pit of her belly _because her father was so very kind, so very heroic – of course he would never abandon a child. Any child._ Her stomach rolled, and Sakura looked off to one side.

“No – do not apologise – that is not your fault,” her father said, sighing then, rubbing at the frown which had marred his brow, even as the pulsing in her own head grew that much worse as time passed and their odd, tense conversation continued. Sleep was calling to her by that point, and Sakura rather wanted to roll over, sleep, and deal with the inevitable fallout when she woke up at a much later point in time. “This is just… a lot to take in…”

A giggle burst from her lips. _Like she didn’t know that,_ Sakura thought, even as her body decided enough was enough, the strain and stress of meeting and finally introducing herself to her father getting to her then, and her eyes rolled back into her skull as she fell back against the sofa in a dead faint.

* * *

_His daughter was alive._

The thought rang about in his mind, consuming his thoughts until he could focus on nothing besides the fact that though his wife was dead still, his daughter was well and truly alive. His daughter had _survived._ He didn’t quite know why he was asking all those questions – not when the proof of her heritage was in her face, her hair, and her ears.

_His daughter was alive._

Part of him seemed to have known the minute Erestor had pulled her out from underneath that table, revealing her long golden locks, her face, her ears, and everything else which had before been hidden beneath that cloak she had clung to like a lifeline. Though the reality that he _had a daughter_ was still slowly sinking in.

_His daughter was alive—_ and was currently passed out on the sofa in front of him. He blinked dumbly at the scene before him. Glorfindel shook himself out of his daze then, surging to his feet then, worry for _his daughter he hadn’t known he had until about five minutes before_ rising as he stared at her prone form. “Erestor!” he called, gathering the small form in his arms, just as Erestor opened the door, proving he had indeed been waiting just outside. “Erestor! What is wrong with her? What do I do? Help me!” he demanded, part of him panicking because _his daughter was alive and she was passed out and he did not know what he was meant to do now and he did not want to lose her after he had just found her and Erestor was smart and he had looked after Arwen too so surely he would know what to do with a child who had drunk alcohol and passed out for one reason or another…_

Erestor took one look at him and his harried, panicked state, pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.


	18. the golden daughter

A dull throb made itself known behind her eyelids, pain pulsing in her temples like someone was using it as a drumskin. “Ugh,” she grunted, opening her eyes then and blinking at the _familiar_ ceiling above her. Well, that and the familiarly obnoxiously gold décor in the room. Memories came rushing back to her then, and her stomach heaved. Her feet moved, eyes locking on the door which looked likeliest to bring her to a bathroom, and a groan and a moan of pain escaped her as she went sailing face first into the floor. Room spinning, she glared at the obnoxiously gold blankets her legs had tangled in, wiggling her feet loose, even as a figure sat up sharply on the bed.

“Lothien?” her father murmured, but she was already slamming open the door which thankfully led to the ensuite, reaching the toilet basin just in time for the contents of her stomach to make an appearance. She gagged on the taste, moaning pathetically as her father appeared in the corners of her vision then, in all his golden glory. “Lothien!” he exclaimed, and Sakura could only wince at the volume, even as she found herself pulled back so her face was no longer pressed against the seat.

“’m fine,” she grumbled, blinking as she found a damp cloth being dabbed at her mouth, removing all traces of her vomit. _She hadn’t had her mother do anything of the sorts since she had become an adult in the eyes of Konoha._ She had been small enough already that she hadn’t wanted anyone to think her a baby still, and so making people think she couldn’t wash her own face was something she couldn’t do.

“Do you still feel unwell?” her father asked then, eyes darting between the toilet and her, and Sakura grunted in answer, turning her head away from the remnants of last night’s dinner. “Good,” he murmured, and Sakura blinked as she found herself promptly lifted and carried ever so carefully over to the sofa – the same sofa her father had apparently slept on, if the pillows and blankets set there were any sort of indication. “I have asked Erestor to inform the kitchen that we will be dining in our rooms for today, given how you are unwell and we live in the main house,” he said, and Sakura blinked at that, staring up at him, trying to digest those words.

“Am I… staying here with you then?” she questioned, hesitancy in her words as she dared to hope that she would be accepted there the way Konoha and the rest of the Elemental Nations had never quite managed to.

Grey eyes bore into her then, and she shifted where she sat. “Of course,” he said. “I would appear to be your last living relative… well, on this side of the sea,” he remarked, looking pensive for a moment, and Sakura remembered that _yes, her mother was still dead._

She hummed in acknowledgement, fidgeting then, even as she found herself once again being bundled up within blankets. Though there was no warm milk on which to sip on that time around, and Sakura could only peer up at Glorfindel and wonder what she was meant to do next. She was hilariously and hideously unprepared. _She hadn’t thought about what she would do after meeting with her father._ She hadn’t thought about a lot of things, or so she was working out as she sat there feeling incredibly twitchy.

“I will ask for a cot to be brought in for you,” her father murmured, seating himself down next to her, seemingly oblivious to the nervousness his closeness provoked. _How was one meant to interact with one’s father again?_ Sakura couldn’t remember, and her stomach felt like jelly. “Given how you will undoubtedly be staying until we sail…”

Sakura felt her brow furrow at the mention of _sailing,_ but she didn’t really want to overload her brain. She was still trying to acclimatise to the fact that her father knew who she was and he was sitting beside her, looking just about as lost as she felt about the entire situation. “So… um… what will we be doing until we _sail_?” she asked, trying to make some form of conversation out of the shambles which had become her life.

“There is not a lot to be done…” he said, and Sakura frowned up at him then. “Our time upon these shores is coming to an end…”

“Oh,” Sakura mumbled, still not having much of a clue as to what they were discussing, and her brain was overloaded, and it was probably going to be that way for a few more days at least. Perhaps until she figured out how father and daughter were supposed to interact. “Hwindion promised he would come back and visit… we won’t sail before then, will we?” she asked, shifting nervously in her seat as Glorfindel looked down at her, expression unreadable. _Sakura supposed he’d had thousands of years to perfect such an expression._

“I had been meaning to ask you of your friend… Erestor says no one could find hide or hair of him this morning…” he said, frowning then. “Do you mean to say that he has left you here? Abandoned you here?” he questioned, and Sakura could sense the disapproval in his voice.

“He knew you were my father,” Sakura said, bitterness and sadness at Naruto’s departure welling up within her at the reminder of her best friend’s disappearance. It was the first time she had been without Naruto when they weren’t on a mission. The first time she had no definite confirmation they would ever see each other again, what with her father claiming they would be sailing across some sea at one point or another. “Besides, it was this world which was causing him to collapse because he is… tied to my… old world in ways which would be too difficult for me to explain… so it was for the best that he went back home,” she said, unsure if she really meant the words. They had been together for so many years, seen so many things together, and now he had gone back to Konoha alone. _Gone back to become Hokage, as had always been his dream, and Sakura felt wretchedly bitter about that much._ If it hadn’t been for Kurama, he could have stayed longer… If he wasn’t so obsessed with becoming Hokage, then he might have stayed with her forever… If he had stayed there, she would’ve grown up eventually, and Naruto could have seen her as an adult and maybe, just maybe, felt something for her beyond friendship.

Her heart ached, and her fingers clutched at the fabric of the shirt she wore, as if they could reach in and pull out that which hurt her so. _She had always been so very jealous of Hinata, and the way Naruto’s eyes had started to follow her as they had both grown up, with her being left behind, short and unable to compete with other girls in that manner._ Part of her wondered why she was so very bitter about it. She pulled her knees up, hiding them beneath the blanket wrapped around her, resting her head on them glumly.

“I did not mean to stir up bad memories,” her father said, blinking as a sharp knock came at the door. He stood then, glancing at her briefly before he went to answer whoever had materialised then and there. Sakura didn’t think she could be wholly surprised when it turned out to be Erestor, of all people. She was gathering that Erestor and Glorfindel were quite good friends, and had probably been for longer than she had been alive.

Though Erestor had brought them breakfast. “I managed to catch Gledhril on her way over here,” he explained, presenting the tray bearing both of their breakfasts to them then. Sakura saw no reason to refrain as she picked up one of the artfully twisted croissants, wolfing it down as her stomach decided to growl right then and there. “I also brought almond biscuits,” he said, bringing out another container then which he slid their way. “You seemed to like them,” Erestor remarked, smiling softly at her then as she glanced between him and the biscuit tin, eyes lighting up.

“For me?”

“Yes,” the ellon stated, seating himself down opposite the pair of them.

Sakura smiled, remembering the moreish biscuits she had tried on one of her previous days there. _Before anyone had figured out that she was an elven child._ Sakura wasn’t sure if she missed those days because _Naruto had been there_ and anonymity was kind of nice. _But she had introduced herself to her father, though she had yet to figure out how to interact with him._ She supposed she could use the day to talk with her father and find out more about him. Sakura nodded then sharply. _That was a good idea._ A smile spread over her face, even as her father looked at her pointedly, looking as though he were about to say something, but Sakura only glanced at Erestor. “Thank you!” she declared, polishing off her croissant before diving into the pile of biscuits, stopping only when she needed to drink.

She sat back with a quiet huff when she was done, feeling eerily content and full as she leant against her father then. Part of her felt like she had mostly and mainly used her father as either a pillow or a headrest during her stay there. Part of her didn’t particularly care – because surely if he hated it, then he would have told her to stop?

“You should be aware,” Erestor was saying, even as she sat there in a contented daze, “almost the entirety of Imladris is aware of Lothien’s existence by now, and there are rumours that she is a definite relation of yours, given her colouring and the fact she was last seen with the both of us.”

Glorfindel smiled, hand absentmindedly tucking some of her hair back behind her pointed little ear, and for once, Sakura didn’t feel awkward about her ears being on display. She supposed it had something to do with being around her father and her kinfolk. “I have opted to stay in my rooms today for a reason,” he said. “The only reason I left last night was to hand in my request for leave…”

Erestor blinked at that, and Sakura only watched the byplay between them, not really wanting to speak because she didn’t have the first clue about that which she wanted to say. Her world had been turned on its head far too many times over the last week, and she wanted some time to adjust before everything was inevitably turned on its head once more. “You intend to stay here then? Temporarily pass on your duties as Captain of the Guard?” Erestor questioned, gaze flickering between them. “I would not have minded minding Lothien whilst you were away…”

“I am needed here,” Glorfindel said, and Sakura didn’t need to look to know her father was looking at her. “I cannot leave my daughter who is… Lothien, forgive me for not enquiring before, but how old might you be?” he asked. “I know you said time does not flow linearly between my wife’s world and this one…”

“Seventeen,” Sakura answered. “I am seventeen.”

Her father frowned at that, looking at her once more, eyes narrowed before he reached out into the tin of biscuits and handed her another one without a single word to her. Sakura frowned, shrugged, and munched on her almond biscuit then. “I will not leave my seventeen-year-old daughter for patrols, Erestor. Not when I have only just found her…”

“Patrols sound important,” Sakura spoke, feeling emboldened by her previous answer, nervousness swirling in her belly still.

“They keep these lands free of any servants of the enemy who would otherwise discover this place,” Erestor replied, smiling then as she attempted to join the conversation despite not having much of a clue as to how Imladris worked. It seemed to be fairly different from Konoha for one, and Sakura already knew she was strange thanks to the results of the dodging game. Her stomach twisted again, and she fidgeted once more, even tucked up against her father’s side as she was.

“So they are important,” she said, glancing up at her father then. “We could go on them together?” she offered. _Maybe those could be father-daughter bonding sessions, or whatever they were meant to be called?_

Glorfindel choked on his drink, much to the palpable amusement of Erestor opposite them. “Absolutely not!” he declared, and Sakura could only hum and shrug. “Patrols can encounter forces of the Enemy – they are dangerous!” he stated in all seriousness, and Sakura could only frown at him. _Naruto had let it slip they had been in a war, hadn’t he?_ Sakura didn’t think there could be much which would top a war in terms of danger.

Sakura took a sip of her own drink. “I slayed a wraith,” she reminded him, settling her glass down before she put her legs down and folded her arms as she stared up at her father mulishly.

Her father stared back, face set into a frown of disapproval. “You should not have had to,” he said decisively, and Sakura only huffed. She supposed her scowl was somewhat ruined by the fact that she was bundled up in blankets – that and the fact she was a child in body still.

“But I did,” she grumbled.

“You should not have had to,” he repeated, and Sakura ground her teeth together. “You are a child, and no child should have had to face off against one of the Enemy’s greatest servants in this day and age…”

“Do you not think it rather fitting though?” Erestor chimed in, before she could repeat what she had just said, smiling pleasantly at her even as she huffed in annoyance. “You are a balrog slayer and your daughter is now a wraith slayer…”

“She should not have had to face off against a wraith… she was even afflicted by the Black Breath! That is something no child should have to be subjected to,” Glorfindel said, growing visibly more agitated as he spoke. Sakura folded her arms tighter and huffed once more. _He had been fine when she had just been some random child…_

“I was only afflicted by the Black Breath because I was not aware of their nature,” she muttered. “That’s all. I’ve faced worse and come out unscathed…”

“You are an _elf_ , Lothien,” her father said. “You are only seventeen – not even a quarter of the way to being classed as an adult by our measures – or does your body not indicate that you are different to humans like your friend Hwindion?” he continued, turning to face her fully then. “You cannot hold yourself to the same standards as men and women… and please do elaborate on the fact that you have faced _worse_ …” he added, tone shifting from pleading and concerned to worried and somewhat stern. “I distinctly remember you claiming that you were only in the medical tents.”

“Mainly,” Sakura corrected, squirming under those grey eyes which felt as though they were trying to peer into her very soul itself. “I said I was mainly in the medical tents…” she trailed off, swallowing then, her throat feeling incredibly dry all of a sudden.

Erestor sniggered.

“I was only called to the front line for a brief while,” she said, staring up mulishly at her father then, determined not to back down – she had survived a war, punched lots of people, and was fully capable of defending the borders of Imladris. _She highly doubted any enemy could be worse than Kaguya or Madara and she had faced both by that point._ “But I am more than capable of surviving in combat.”

Glorfindel ran his fingers through those golden locks which matched hers, looking near tears as his hands grasped at his hair. “I do believe you are missing my point entirely,” her father said, face buried in his hands by that point.

Erestor threw back his head and laughed at his friend’s misfortune.

**Author's Note:**

> SPORADIC UPDATES T_T


End file.
